Automatically transcribed, so expect the odd wrong name or word.
All righty boys, welcome. Thanks mate, big fan of the show. Oh stop it, you just asked me what the fuck it was called so great start, good to know you're longtime listeners. First of all, hello, there we go, Banksy's basically coming to say hello. Why are you here? Yeah well speaking chair I guess represents the three of us so speaking now is Mason, then we've got Ben, then Nathan, Swami. Beautiful. How did you how did how did all this get started? Was it hanging out and chatting about you know what the world needed or was it you know did it kind of just start in MC and go from there, how did it all get started?
Yeah there's probably like a bit of a long story and a short story, the long story is that. Give us a medium version, we've got time. Yeah okay, the three of us went up to Darwin a couple years ago now and we all played footy up there during that Covid time and we're already mates like we're studying and working together at that time but sort of going up and experiencing that together sort of it's a like brought our friendship together closer and then during that time, hey Banks, during that time a few things sort of
happen across that period of time that sort of maybe yeah formed our stories and formed speaking chair so on the probably on the second day of quarantine, so we had to do quarantine in Darwin, my parents split up which led to some pretty hard times for myself and then Mace and Ben unfortunately lost one of their close mates to suicide maybe a couple months later sort of towards the end of our trip which was a really hard time and then yeah it was just one day we were actually working as integration aides at a school
locally and it was during Covid and we said like you know everyone's sort of struggling at the moment so what sort of what can we really do to try to bring people together and yeah we didn't really know but it sort of just led to an Instagram post which led to a video and now we're here really so yeah it's come along really quickly I remember we just put up our first Instagram post it was just our logo which is just speaking chairs that one there the old logo didn't really know what reception it would
get and it got really good reception and then we put a video up talking about our own stories and what we've been through sort of thing and then that gained more traction then I think we just sat back and said like we've got a really good opportunity to capitalise on this and and help others through lockdown and it's really just grown from there pretty much yeah I think like the big one for us is being three school teachers now as well so we're seeing the effects of what lockdown and Covid I guess had on these
school students so we thought we've got an opportunity to create change and this might be it that's awesome what was the like initial was there hesitation around putting that initial post up and sharing your stories and the vulnerability that came with that yeah 100% like I mean we're all packing our daks sort of yeah we filmed that video in Ben's garage and it was super raw like it was probably the first time we'd actually seen each other like that open and honest yeah and it was really hard to put it like post it because you
just don't know what like what reception you're going to get or how you're going to be judged but you know we were there for each other and we said like let's just do it and yeah I'm so glad we did because if we didn't do that like we wouldn't be here today and sort of like being young males we said like we've got a story to share so let's share it and hopefully that'll pave the way for others to follow so yeah yeah that's awesome what was the initial like first 24 48 hours like after
you'd done that it's pretty surreal obviously we all within I mean within footy clubs so we see like the masculinity that is in footy clubs and blokes don't want to talk about their issues and I had a lot of my close mates reach out and say like thank you for doing that thank you for sharing that video and as I said before got a lot more traction than we initially expected it would so that's when we sat back and said yeah let's keep going with this and see where it takes us and I think like
the start of anything new like you don't know what it's going to look like we've always said we're happy to be guided by our community and how it looks so yeah we thought we'd make ourselves vulnerable we'll put it out there and then sort of the journey that follows we'll see where it takes us and see what the community's after that's awesome what was the what was was the response like obviously people reaching out saying thank you for doing this was there was there like a push in a certain direction from everyone or was it
kind of just like guys we need to keep doing more of this yeah like when we first put that post up of just our logo like we didn't even know like you know what it was going to be we knew we wanted to make like a couple like videos like we looked at inspired unemployed and be like these guys are doing such a cool thing like yeah maybe we could do something but like put a spin on with a mental health spin on it so we started there and yeah we made that first video if
you go back and watch that now it's like so embarrassing a little cringy the message is still like on point but the like the acting and the filming is just stiff as horrible like it's all part of the journey like it's so it's so cool to like go back and have a look it's just funny how how long down the road are we now from that first video about 15 months 15 months yeah it's crazy yeah yeah it's gone quick do you guys like obviously you've still got a lot of work to do and still
a lot of good stuff you want to do but you take moments to be like fuck we've built a pretty cool thing yeah we always say it a lot we don't enough like it's it's always a hard one to measure like it's not yeah sales or things like that is not how we're measuring our impacts like it's always we'll receive a message every now and then and it's oh thank you so much for coming out or yeah the words that they use in that is what really means something to us so yeah i think just
reading the impact you have on people and the way we can bring community together that's when we sit back and think wow like this is something but definitely not enough yeah it's hard to like measure our influence also like we can sort of judge it sometimes by how well a video might do or um how an event might go and that's sort of when we might say like oh shit that was wicked but um i guess the most special things are when you get someone like directly messaging you got last saying like thank you this
helps me with checking in on a mate and then we like we'll screenshot screenshot that and send it into the group and we'll be like fuck like we're doing a good job thing like here like let's keep going sort of thing yeah yeah well from the outside in like you guys are making a difference and it's huge it's awesome and we need more of this what was the once you've kind of done that post and kind of went all right we're going to do something here you just sit down and start to hash out what
you thought it could be or what you wanted to be and start planning or did it kind of just grow from strength strength as it as it went we had some idea when we started it we wanted to aim at men's mental health um but then a lot of our interactions and followings were from females um so then we just came to a stage where like everyone's got mental health everyone suffers or knows someone that's suffering yeah everyone has mental health so let's go both ways um and then we sort of went from there and
i think as well like when we say mental health like immediately we think of like mental ill health and we're like if we can challenge the stigma around that that it's normal to if someone's doing well like pump them up let them know they're going well compared to be there for them then compared to when they're maybe having a time of a bit of a dip and be there for them as well so yeah you don't want to wait till you know you're at the bottom of the bottom of the hole before you start sharing
and asking for help and things like that absolutely it's very much yeah who came up with the name uh well we tossed and turned with the name for quite a while yeah um there was like a longer version and then i don't know we just sort of just went like speak and share one day we just took a few letters out and it just yeah it stuck so it just clicked yeah it was way too long to start off with wasn't it oh i was like speak up and share and then all abbreviating it all
and yeah yeah just simplified it and simple is good yeah it was good now nailed the name and and nailed the logo so i'll reach out i mean when you know you know right like yeah people like ask us where how we got how we thought of the name and how we thought of logo and stuff and it's just where vert has come from uh it's latin for excellence yeah like it yeah so it was like coach yeah there you go so it was like what do you want like we were like what do we
want to embody what do we want the business to stand for and like that was what we came came kept coming back to but excellent performance sounds a bit shit so yeah we uh we went back to latin to see how we go um if someone was asking for the first time and had no idea what you guys do how would you how would you i guess explain the the core message of speech yeah yeah so we're trying to bring as much awareness positive awareness to mental health as possible um we talked about it a
lot recently but we're trying to change the culture and the thinking towards mental health and um what we're big on is building a community so we just want to bring people together um create a community for people to reach out to and feel a part of and feel comfortable within they feel comfortable to go speak to so and just normalize the conversation surrounding mental health it shouldn't be this big scary thing that we don't want to talk about like you should just be able to put up your hand and say you know what i'm not
feeling that well or i'm feeling great today you should just be able to talk about it and feel comfortable in talking about it probably like yeah but i was just gonna go back to your point like you brought up the like having positive mental health like it's a good thing to celebrate like that that's what we want to do like it's awesome when your mental is going well so we should you know look after and keep it going yeah that's why we aim to be a preventative approach like if we people know these skills and
these strategies they can use while they're going well then when there is a little dip then they already know the people they can reach out to or the services that are available in times of need yeah what are the what are the ways in which you're building community it's been through our events most recently um we've just launched our sweat and share movement club um thanks for jumping on board too sponsoring it so really appreciate that i sent the wife down for the first one so yeah get her taking the legs over she didn't come
back week two she mustn't have liked it now we now we had an event on friday night yeah and uh yeah we were not running on saturday night but well it's two weeks in yeah two weeks in um and that's all leading up to a fun run um on the 4th of december so here you got a little master involved yeah gary applet how's that huge yes huge gary fan too thanks yeah just through these like community events or yeah these clubs that people can come from if you're not watching and you're listening chewing she's
happy now she loves it yeah just on the back of nice points like so through community events which we're big on um but then being three school teachers 2023 plans to be a pretty big year for us and bringing out our school program so that's the age groups we we want to target um as well as that we've already we already do our sporting club program which yeah we've been stoked with how it's been received so far and then as well as uh like a corporate offering to bigger businesses as well we can reconnect them
post-covid so how'd you go with the first like school or or um footy club presentation i remember our first one nathan i went to a cricket club down this way yeah um we rocked up all fresh as like didn't really know what we're doing and there was like 40 to 50 year olds covered in tattoos yeah and we got up the front we're like oh shit what are we in for um and then we shared our stories and presented and they like the interaction was awesome and then we went from there like this is going
to be really special yeah um but i remember standing up the first time we sort of looked at each other like oh my god what are we doing i'm not like sitting in the car driving we're like fuck man no one's going to listen to us like yeah and yeah we're pretty nervous but you know we've done quite a few now um we've been out to kite and footy club you know that's probably our furthest one which is awesome so it's massive um yeah it's ticking along like 2023 is going to be huge for us
and yeah yeah very much a building year this year to launch into it awesome what was the you just got uh charity status huge talk us through that process man it's massive yeah we've we've got so we've got an advisory board that they have been amazing for us in that sort of assistance in the back end um so yeah it's quite a journey that we went on thanks he's loving this body um so yeah it was a fair journey i'd say six months it probably took us all up to to get that charity and dgr
status yeah but really crucial for an organization like ours to have that that status um yeah just the way that we operate it's it's pretty special to have so yeah it's a long journey but we've made it it's pretty hard setting up a business isn't it look yeah it's just throwing shit at all for years you guys you guys have uh done a lot more in your first first 15 months than we did but well you couldn't believe it like i would just start this business it can't be that hard and then we learn out
what business looks like and what you actually have to do there's a little a lot of work involved i think but i think it's almost like the best way to do it like i think the and not to say there's a wrong way to do it but the guys that go and do an mba and go learn all the theory behind it and then try and start it you almost miss the like the essence of what you're actually trying to do and what you're trying to build and like you guys coming and we came up
from like we love training we love coaching we love seeing people get from where they are to where they want to be and you guys are doing the same thing just from a a want and a need and the necessity of of sharing your message yeah and i think that that's almost yeah i look at it it's better and it's long-term approach when things get hard and you can just lean back on those values and lean back on that why yeah for sure it's been incredible to learn all about like this side of the business
and becoming a charity and stuff but yeah don't get me wrong we're being guided by like some extremely intelligent people and some extremely hard-working people so we wouldn't be in this position without them like where we say it all the time but we're like forever grateful for the three team members that we've got at the moment and that team will continue to build so yeah what have been the biggest and this is a this is a big ambiguous question but what would have been the biggest few learnings for each of you over the last 15
months going through this journey yeah it is a tough question um for me probably the power of vulnerability like when we first put up that video or like when i get up and present my story to people i always always have like one or two people that come up and say like i know what you've been through um and i read like hugh van so with a resilience projects book and he speaks all about vulnerability um until i actually got up and presented and put my own story online didn't realize how powerful it is um
and how contagious it can be if someone puts up their hand it is vulnerable usually most people follow so that's one for me yeah yeah i'd probably say how open people are to discussing their mental health yeah we have a lot of people that like thank us for providing the space or the opportunity to sit down and discuss with people how they're actually going and i think that's what a lot of people may find quite difficult is how do you bring up how you're actually going or if something's not going to plan how do you
discuss it with mates so i think yeah being a preventative approach if we can upskill people to to know that reach out to people when you need and how you do that and how your mates can check in on you um that's probably the biggest thing i've learned people open to it yeah i'm same as these boys but i've probably also learned like how powerful community can be um and even mace and i were just up in the tiwi islands and we're with the tiwi people and you know when you're in that environment you actually
see like how powerful and how much the community means to these people and for us that's what we're trying to create and that's we just want to bring as many people together so um when we hold these spaces or these events um we really do see like our community coming together and flourishing and you know we've got kids like we'll talk about this kid um where we did that video the other day for the sweat and share movement club like the promo video and we had a kid jump on the bus and travel 55 minutes
to come just jump in a video for like half an hour and then he got the bus back home like for us that like means the world to us that's so cool he was there on saturday as well saturday morning took him 90 minutes and we started at seven so he's up at like five i'm like you're a machine this is like a 16-17 year old kid like coming in really investing in like this message and yeah that's that's why we do it yeah it must be a nice feeling to know that almost your your
message is in good hands like not that you guys are going anywhere but you know hypothetically if you stop doing it tomorrow it's like you know that it will keep growing keep spreading yeah and that's the constant change in the culture like you know one day we're going to be like old and wise one day but you know then it's for the next crop of kids to come through and run the speaking share message and promote and that's how this community is going to continue to build and that's exactly what we've realized like it takes
a community to create change like the three of us are trying to lead the way in what speaking share is but it's so much guided by like how much our community is invested in it how much they they come in and join in our community events or in our programs that takes yeah a lot of people to create change yeah that's awesome what about the the business lessons what have been the one or two lessons from business perspective oh it's kind of fascinating now being like okay we're turning well we just turned seven so yeah
and it's just it's it's just weird to say that we've been around seven years um because you know i didn't know right and starting a business and and kind of being through a lot of ups and downs so what would have been the business lessons for the last 15 months mine's probably just like organizational skills and how important that is the most embarrassing that i think we've personally done is before we sold our hoodies we put up on instagram saying we've got stickers and there was about 200 people that bought a sticker all over the
peninsula so instead of posting them we've just decided to drive to everyone's house to drop off the stickers so we're in my car for about i'm gonna say four or five hours like half a tank of petrol um just little things like that yeah i've been there dropping shit jumping in people's houses spot on i think maybe the tracking side of things so like from a financial point of view or the legal documents you need to keep even now when we book a program we need to send out like a proposal document those sort of
things so yeah maybe i'd say the legal side of things the process yep spot on yeah probably like organization like getting a calendar ben you're handing me again like this morning saying like mate you need to get a calendar in your phone like yeah i just i do i just never put anything in it google calendar game changer but here's the calendar he's a tree we need to get it he's a trick one of you like whoever's the most organized organized you just need to nudge them to send you an invite see mace has been
banging on about this for six months i reckon yeah a game changer like i i suck at putting stuff in right so i just set my recurring stuff and i you know say tyler's saying hey do you want to meet on wednesday and talk about you know xyz i said yep send me my yeah and you just just repeat that to everyone who knows you and next thing you know it's full and it's got all your shit in there that you don't have to do it that is music to my ears mate seriously do it
game changer and i'm just and you know i am probably really similar to you boys like you know idiot footballer sometimes and you're just like i don't have any organizational skills i have any process or system in me but once you realize that that's the shit that is the framework to your business you'll be fine that's crucial absolutely yeah probably learn like how valuable time is to like now we're all working in probably different parts of the or running different parts of the uh business so yeah um so you're all teaching as well yeah we're
juggling our teaching at the moment yeah so speak and share three days a week and then two days a week nathan icrt and then naces i'm teaching three days a week so still a bit going on yeah awesome how do you balance the the charity side and the doing good and the making a difference versus the needing to you know put clothes on your back and roof over your head and feed yourselves yeah like it's definitely been hard this year like we won't lie like as i said like you got to start somewhere with the
business but um yeah yeah it's been a grind but you know it's all part of the story like we're starting to get to a position where we'll be able to work for speak and share which is exciting yeah um that's what next year hopefully with running these school programs will be invested like more in the business yeah um i mean like we want to be doing this full-time sort of thing so yeah um yeah what do you guys reckon yeah incredibly challenging i'd say just the juggle like as you said you got to look after
your own self and what your own bank account looks like but at the same time i think we were so driven to make speak and share something and to keep on driving it to just continually build so yeah there's little sacrifices you got to take along them over that too yeah i mean you want to build a thing that's sustainable that you can have long term that can you know look after you but then your community and i think if you lean into either one of the two things you lean into the finances and you're
like we just need to make cash yeah like people see through that and it ends up being disingenuous why you're doing it whereas if you lean into the you know we're just gonna you know do good because it's the right thing to do you'll end up burnt out and over it and hating it because it doesn't allow you to live the life you want to live yeah the balance of sustainability with it yeah yeah and i guess you'll probably go through ebbs and flows of going fuck boys we need to make some cash yeah sell
some more hoodies 100 that's why we're lucky we got our teaching degree because we can still work one or two days a week if we need to so it has been stressful but it's working all right so yeah awesome how many hoodies have you sold by the way you have a seven number because i'm seeing them everywhere and it's fucking ripper probably be maybe a thousand total yeah yeah it's been yeah that's also been a bit of a juggle this year like next year is going to be a big year for our hoodie sales oh
um like we with our hoodies we're really trying to create a community in that space as well um so if you see someone down the street or at the footy club wearing a hoodie like we want that to be like a conversation starter yeah that's what i was going to say as well like we've said a fair bit of community so far but we love with our merchandise that if somebody's wearing the same thing as you or you notice the same brand the at least it's going to be a smile or hello and we think
that that's pretty powerful and the connections that can make so oh you're running and then this is the thing is like you run into someone even if you're not wearing you're running someone else wearing it you can just you know say hi yeah ask them ask them how they're connected and just it builds relationship spot on and that's ultimately what community is all about and it you know it gives gives them another connection and someone else talk to like you know they might might be having a shit day and just someone reaching out saying love
your hoodie you know what's your name perfect yeah exactly absolutely yeah i was the um so one of our team members beck she's um she was wearing our hoodie and she was doing a like a lap of the park one day and this old guy came up and he was obviously just going for a stroll and just like stopped and asked her like what speaking share was about yeah and then they just got chatting over like what speaking chair is and like to hear that stuff that's pretty special yeah it's pretty cool yeah absolutely yeah
it's nice because it's something that i guess the you know the world and you know our world definitely needs is just more community more connection i kind of feel you know because this place is something that we try and community i guess is the number one thing right we're a we're a people business masquerading as a as a gym um and you know over the last over the last like yeah seven years it's all been around like how do we contribute to the community and connect people in ways that they weren't connected and i think
brands like yours brands like ours common folks naikol every you know they just foster this connection that maybe we've lost over the last 10-15 years with you know social media and all that kind of stuff um actually that's something i want to talk about social media and obviously it's such a powerful tool to promote your message but it also you know can detract from mental health and from well-being how do you guys navigate that and and what are your i guess what are your thoughts on on how it is presented to kids especially as teachers
it's got its pros and cons like obviously during lockdown when we started speaking share we weren't presenting so we couldn't reach anyone physically so it was all online yeah but being a school teacher obviously see the negative connotations that are associated with social media and ict use so it's a constant debate that we have in schools as teachers like should you allow them screen time should you not especially now kids don't really hand write so they're always on their computers they're always doing their work on their word doc and then they've got a game on
the side or their instagram or whatever so it's yeah it's an interesting debate the old social media and ict yeah i think it's very much the world we live in now that like social media is huge so if we can play our part and like you do with the gym you play your part in creating a positive spin to social media and putting the good content out there for people to see and that's that's a powerful side of it yeah it's interesting because you want to be able to connect when you can but you also
want to create space where you look around and no one's on their phone everyone's just actively enjoying what they're doing but it is such a yeah it's it's such a um such a contrast and it's fascinating because everyone's got their their own opinion own spin on it exactly right um and i think we've ever looked at it like as a negative ourselves like we're like this is this is a real like huge opportunity for us to put our message out there and reach as many people as possible so we've always used it to our advantage
and we've always been like really like keen to jump into other platforms to promote the message and you know when you see a kid in class like watching one of your videos you're like oh well they might not be doing work yeah like they're listening to our video and yeah we because we have a training app that we use in here that everyone logs their program and you walk past like that's fucking better be on train heroic because if you walk around your classroom like that better be a speech every year double tap share just
yeah just create a rule in your classrooms if you're watching it they have to be sharing it the one way ben and i actually get kids to do work is we give them stickers yeah if you get your if you get your work done we'll give you a sticker and i mean it's a good guerrilla marketing tool you just like give all the kids stickers and say hey go put it on something oh one of the schools that we work out we've just about got a sticker on every laptop yeah it's pretty much speak and
share college yeah that's what you want there you go the truth comes out about where our stickers are going i mean that's perfect because you know i guess it just spreads the message saves us from getting in the car for six hours and dropping them off that's it what's the uh what's the plan for the school programs next year yeah so we're gonna hit them pretty hard um it's gonna be three of us next year and then we're hoping we get to a stage where we've got facilitators that present the program as well so we'll
hit the morning to peninsula pretty hard obviously all born and bred from down here and then grow from there and see where that takes us yeah what's what what will the program encompass like what we what we do obviously share your stories yeah so big on sharing our stories and just we'll run a few activities what will have like a mental health message behind it um and then the main activity is getting kids to share a bit of their own stories with their peers and getting a little bit closer and just sort of creating that
connection yeah we're big on hitting our own backyard first like ben said we'll target the peninsula pretty hard first hello banksy and um but i think it's cool that a lot of the peninsula do already know about speak and share as well so if we're coming into and running a school program the leave behind can be that you're already connected to a speak and share community so through the merchandise that might follow with that or hello or other yeah other areas but leaving behind a community usually she she pops in for 30 second hello and
then fucks off she's loving it she needs a headset someone wants to edit this and just follow banksy around for the hour that'd be great um i did not hear the last 30 seconds of what you said just fucking eyeballing banksy and telling her get off the couch was i speaking was i yeah you were no i just said in the background of we want to target our own backyard yeah of course speak and share so what's that don't move that yeah if i can stop playing with you sorry man they're getting a bit fidgety
tell me you're pro at this oh now i don't know what we're talking about that's okay that's okay what's like i guess obviously you want to continue like you're nailed down the back the backyard and and and be um kind of the go-to mental health resource on the peninsula what's the plan over the next five ten years have you thought that far ahead do you have like growth projections and things you want to do yeah we definitely do yeah next two to three will be victoria and then after that interstate um but obviously we don't
want to be the only mental health like you've got outside the locker room that works within footy clubs but if we can all come together um and each put our 10 cents in then we'll go a long way in changing the culture yeah yeah we don't yeah i'm just going to touch on that like we're not the only one we don't want to be the only one like we're all working towards promoting the same message so um if someone can deliver it better than us or can geez going crazy if anyone yeah promote that message
in a different way that might resonate with someone then absolutely we want to support that um yeah we're big on our our own message and how we're delivering it obviously trying to de-stigmatizing it and add a bit of humor and just try and make it a little bit normal so um that's our way about it go on it and yeah we're going to tackle australia hopefully and hopefully grow it even more so yeah in a bus okay that's a secret we're not giving that out yeah i want to hear about that you get the bus
the speak share bus the speak share bus can you get like you get like a um a stuffed giraffe that talks oh harold bring harold get harold back on the speak share bus that'll be huge get banksy yes thanks is that sort of thing harold i don't think i actually have no idea my word it is yeah can't do our school does harold still talk about sex ed and uh yeah harold's not in a bus anymore though harold's in a little tent that comes into the classroom oh it's on a budget yeah i think he's
on a budget i think it was a little bit weird kids coming to the old harold bus yeah yeah there you go um so we can't talk about speak share bus no that's a big picture unless you've got a bus that you'd like to donate to speak and share i'm sure we can find a bus if anyone anyone watching has got a bus yeah it's a good cause yeah it's a good cause um talk to me about like you guys as individuals because obviously there's you know speak share and you're you're putting all your time
and energy into that but how do you guys balance you know your own lives outside of speak share and how are you how are you kind of separating yourself so you're not seen as just the three speaks share boys you're seeing as individuals within itself yeah it's probably been a bit of a balancing act too like there's an absolute wind coming from the dog man it's put me off oh he's gone he's gone he's off there you go nathan yeah it's been it's definitely been a balancing act like yeah we're so invested in like this
message and what we're trying to do that sometimes it's hard to like pull back and realize that you've got to live like your own life as well and you look after yourself so um for me it's been like you know playing footy locally um surfing hanging out with mates um we've been lucky enough to do a bit of travel this year um yeah so that's yeah it's probably the main one it's just like i feel like we're so invested in this thing that like sometimes you get caught up in like you know pulling back and
looking after yourself but what about you that's yeah we've actually set up at my place at home so the office is at my place at the kitchen table so i've struggled to switch off i've always got like a hoodie or that in my in my bedroom they've got to pack or put to the post office or whatever so i have found it hard to switch off um but going to the gym running um hanging out with girlfriend and friends is my way of sort of getting away from it so yeah yeah i'd say as well
mine's like the release of it like so what does speak and share look like 24/7 like if my mates know i'm there for them then like i'm playing my role but i think also having the outlets so i very much like to be involved in different areas like i mean at the school teaching playing footy with you boys at speak and share just having all different avenues to yeah go and be the best version of yourself yeah i love that like because i guess it's you've got to lean into the thing you're trying to build
right otherwise it never gets off the ground never gets going but at the same time you need to have that awareness and balance do you i have you been able to kind of like give each other a nudge when things are a little bit hectic and be like you know mace like you've got to spend a little bit of time time at home or spend a little bit of time doing something else that's not speaks yet i reckon we have we're pretty honest with each other like if we're not agreeing with each other we'll sort
of just put on the table and put it out there um if you don't it sort of will fracture your business relationship and obviously we're best mates as well so that's the last thing we want is to fracture our own relationships i think we're doing a pretty good job at it yeah i think the whole thing we're promoting is like being honest and open so we have to do that with one another as well so is it hard to take your own advice sometimes absolutely yeah sure and we're all like so passionate and driven so
like it's a good thing and it's healthy for a business so any uh speak share verbal punch-ons of you guys arguing about what you're doing or where you're going or or had a few i'm not really verbal no physical yet no physical yet yeah we'll get there try not condone domestic violence but it will probably get to a stage where we might get a little scuffle yeah what's it what's it like being essentially who would win i'll back myself in i'll back myself in if anyone knows ben you can't fight shit teddy bear like it's
you know we started it as like best mates and like it's only brought us closer so that's good we are very honest and like we probably do sometimes spend a bit too much time together and um we know we know that but like we love it so yeah it's all sweet yeah yeah yeah yeah for now yeah like it must be challenging being best mates and business partners at the same time yeah i think it has like with anything has its pros and cons like because we are best mates like we are so open with
each other we love what we do because we're all in the same line of work and that so there's so many pros that come to that but yeah i guess the cons is you spend too much time with anybody and you're gonna get a little bit sick of them so yeah yeah we're finding the balance for that but it must help that you really feel but it must help that the message is so you know so um clear and so hos she's got back you know i think she missed you all right this is her
podcast we're just living in it yeah that's it jumping off or are you saying that there you go jesus christ thanks um so tell us about tell us about the um the sweat sweatshare and the the fun run that you got coming up because um so this will go out in a couple of days next or monday um and obviously we want to get a a good contingent of our community there what is it why what's the plan yeah so we started the movement club last saturday um that's gonna run every week till the 4th
of december and then we'll have our fun run down in safety beach and then we'll continue that the uh movement club till chrissy and then jan and feb next year we just felt like the peninsula was crying out for a club that was active and got people together um you got your park run in hastings which does a great job but there's nothing really on this side morning to mount mathway that does it yeah um and with our instagram following we just thought let's just put it out there see how it goes we had 50
people there last week and had about 55 there on the previous saturday so um just a place where people can come down get active walk run or jog you don't have to be an elite athlete but it's just more about getting people together and meeting new people sort of thing so it's working really well and then we'll work towards the fun run and hopefully get a few people down there which would be a big fundraising event for us and hopefully put us in good stead for next year and then yeah we'll go from there yeah
awesome yeah i guess how the fun run sort of came about was these two kids uh two boys alice and amelio they're local um 16 year olds both go to school and stuff locally so they sort of came to us and said you know um last year we raised five grand for a charity by running a half marathon this year we wanted to take it up a notch and do it for speak and share and again coming back to like our message hitting with our audience like that's a perfect example of two kids coming to
us and yeah um yeah like with the support of their parents their fathers they both got um real estate businesses locally they've come together as well to really help help build this event um and yeah it's turning into quite a big big event which is exciting but awesome yeah we really wanted to make these boys the face of it and that's what we did and we promoted there there are probably the inspiration on instagram and um it's just cool to see two young guys um yeah invested in our message and hopefully they're like the next
crop of kids to come through and really take speak and share forward and i love like our community events like how it brings like the people from all different ages together and this is a real simple idea for us to have continuous community events where people can come together every week checking on each other go for a run but then stay around after and have a little bit of chat or go for a coffee and create connections that way yeah awesome dude well you guys have been away you two have been away playing footy it's
lucky yeah be better do you start getting a little bit a little bit more of a share each uh like a percentage each each time these boys are away for something important that i love taking yeah call all the shots which is good yeah but it must be nice to be able to you know see 50 people you know mornington park hanging out it's unreal we've had um a group of three or four that have come from the city way so they've driven 55 minutes um i had a few people from laying warren and narrow
warren and out that way that have come as well so it's really special it's a place where they can come down feel supported um and get active at the same time kp got home from the first one i was like did you make a friend she's like yeah i did but she's from an hour away so i probably never see her yeah i couldn't believe it we had this one guy that was from nearly past the city out coburg way huge he's like we just followed you on instagram during covid like just want to come
down and support you and he came again on the weekend it's just yeah it's surreal really cool yeah that's so cool that like reminds me of our first event where we had that um guy from new zealand he just moved to new zealand like two three weeks ago and he just like rocked up at event just flew over no like he'd moved oh he moved here from not for us we're not that big i was gonna say that fuck that's huge we got a bottle of that basically chill i'm about to hook up with your
dog wouldn't be the first one he knew absolutely no one and just turned off and i'm like wow that's bloody sick man yeah yeah so that's amazing what would have been the like in the 15 months like obviously you'll all have a heap of memories and a heap of like moments but tell me your your best moment or like little story that happened has happened over the last 15 months we've kind of gone you know we're doing the right thing here yeah i think for me maybe not one in particular moment but maybe that five
ten minutes after a community event or after running a program where we'll sit down together at the end feel like wow like that was guided by these people in the room we were just here facilitating it and like look at the positive change that it's had for this sporting club or for these community members that have come down so yeah for me that that feeling will never get old of yeah it's a real fulfilling moment i guess we have yeah mine would probably be after our first session um at the cricket club because i was
sort of questioning myself like do i really want to do this sort of thing do i want to get up and share my story pretty personal story in front of people that i don't know um and then receiving the feedback straight away after we were presented i've had like which is full of endorphins i'm like yeah this is like this is me this is what i want to do so yeah that was probably my experience yeah like yeah i both agree with them but um probably for me it's the the rossy hood that we did
um so one of our close mates chris ross was sadly diagnosed with mnd um about a year and a half ago now and yeah he's been going through a bit of hard time and we were lucky enough to dedicate our hoodie to his story um yeah and chris was really vulnerable and open and sort of just provided us an insight into what he's been going through and um his journey with mnd and like it's probably yeah it's a very hard thing to do um for him but like was forever grateful of him sharing his story
and um yeah i'm really proud that we could do that together and it's immense let people let people in and what he's going through because he's a incredible human yeah and like i said that's one of the wonderful things about what you're doing is you'll just keep me meeting and connecting with incredible humans um and you know that's that's why like it's been five years but that's why i started the podcast because you realize talking to our community in here that everyone has a story everyone has you know ups and downs and everyone's done wonderful
things it's just most people don't share them and don't don't you know you know maybe don't want to or or don't feel comfortable just talking about what they've done but i think um ultimately everyone has a story to share and once you actually get in a room and most people like you know maybe don't like talking about themselves initially but when you do share your story and you realize that it's contagious and you realize that you know everyone around you just wants to you know help and connect and and be a part of it then
yeah world's a better place that's what i was going to touch on as well just the like amazing communities and like businesses that are out there like like they talk about your own gym like and how this is such a special place like they're who we want to be aligned with and it's amazing the impact that like communities can have and so generous in the time or the things that they donate to speak and share or when they come down the members they bring with them like it's pretty pretty cool to see that side of
things as well that's awesome and one last question for you for each of you what are you most excited for all right like just to see where it takes us it's sort of the known like unknown don't know where it's exactly going to end up um obviously we know we're going to be in schools but just like how big it can or could get um is something that i'm really excited for and i just like the unknown like i like waking up every day not knowing where it's going to take us so where it's going
to take us is i'm yeah keen to see where yeah i'm probably most excited about like how big we can grow this community and how many people we can pull into this community um probably through this whole thing i've really learned how like much i really enjoy bringing people together with these boys as well and yeah um you know the the the following is growing on instagram and facebook and all the social platforms but hopefully our events can can can continue to grow and people can come connect and yeah that's what i'm most excited about
yeah i'd probably say like i agree with both of them and i'm probably most excited about the short time we've been around like the amazing positive effects it had on people and the amazing stories we hear but how much that's going to grow and how much bigger that will become and the more amazing people and businesses and communities we will meet awesome actually one last question i lied what are you what are you most excited about for speaking share fuck i'm just excited to see like i don't know i look at it as just such
a like for me i'm so super passionate about local and just about connecting with people who live local like i hate that most people don't know their neighbours and don't connect and um and you know businesses like i mentioned before like common folk snake hole like you guys they're just all they're doing is basically opening opening their doors and saying you can come here and be yourself and connect with people that want to see the world be a better place um and i think it's really easy in this day and age to look you know
kind of zoom out and look at everything go well shit's fucked like we're in trouble but if you allow yourself to narrow your focus to the people that are doing good like you guys you go well you know there's some hope and there's there's a lot of hope and um and hope is hope hope is seeing you guys take a plunge have a crack at a thing be vulnerable share your story and i think the the amount of people that have latched onto your message and gone we want to be a part of this too
shows that you guys are going to be around for a long time so i'm excited to see how it just keeps growing um see how we can we can contribute to it in in whatever way shape or form that looks like and um and ultimately the the message of mental health positive you know positive mental health as well as you know getting out of the the dark times um you know that message is one that everyone gets it needs to be shared and it needs to be clearly articulated to people who are struggling um and
i think that even if people aren't ready to share and i think that's an important important part of it they're they see a community of people that are ready to just give put their arms around you and um yeah you guys are yeah you guys are doing good things and it's going to be really exciting to see it grow appreciate that yeah very kind last one what are you most proud of in life in general or probably my friends and family like when i see my mates like love these two and love my family so
much so if i see like one of these boys or one of my family members doing something cool that i appreciate get around at heart and just like motivates me to be a better person so i'd say family and friends huge uh jumping at opportunities i say just diving into new things we didn't know what speaking showers look like who knows what your footy journey looks like being a school teacher those things so jumping in giving it a go and normally it pays off eagle next year eagle next year yep let's go something it must
be heartbreaking to you too i don't want to talk about it yeah like i'm just saying it's probably nice i'm proud of just having to go um you know if you had asked us two years ago we were doing this we would have bloody said no way like but here we are so um it was hard to take that step and we took that step and yeah each day is a new step and yeah i'm really proud of the three of us and yeah the people that are helping us so yep how can people find
out about speak share learn about speak share and and um connect with and and um contribute to what you guys are doing yeah probably like the main ones through um our social platforms instagram facebook we've got tick tock a little bit we don't really use it that much at the moment which website yeah the website um and you know like just supporting us is just like sharing a post or sending a message to a mate asking them how they're going like yeah it can be as little as that or it can be buying a hoodie
um but you know just live by the speaking share message which is a problem share it's a problem half so if you see your mate struggling you know go up and help them or give them a call and just check in how they're going on the odd day so and reach out like we'd love to come and present to your sporting club or your school or we'd love to run a community event that's guided by our community so yeah reach out and what it looks like and we'd love to be involved perfect love your work
boys thanks for having us thanks a lot awesome
