S2E04 · Shaun Gionis aka Picto Bento

Hey legends, welcome to the Virtus Performance Podcast. We've got episode number 102 today with the great man Sean Jonas aka Picto Bento. We'll dive into why he's called Picto Bento early on in the podcast. Tommy T also jumped in today to be the glue guy. We chatted all about Picto's odd jobs, all the stuff he's done, his love for the simple things, all the cool stuff that comes with being a well-known Australian rock star and that self-proclaimed rock star. Okay, he didn't say that. He's actually very humble about it. And we also chatted about a few exciting events he has coming up this year.

Underwater events too, which we love. So get excited. Anyway, here we go, here's Picto. My personal and business goal is to be just a little bit better every day. I believe everyone, especially normal people, have a story to tell. The Virtus podcast exists to help us all find small ways of consistent improvement by discussing the journey and experiences of each of our guests. What are we looking at? What have we got up there? Talk us through those photos on your Instagram, Picto. Swim team up top, tip rack, young Picto Bento. What's this Pez Heads? Pez Heads?

That's just, yeah, it's terrible. Love the Pez Heads. You, Clean Shave and Shawnee. Love it. Solar panels. Solar panels. Horamentally friendly right there. Did you punch back into the grid this last time? 50 bucks credit. Love that. That's just, that's just first. You are making the world a better place, one kilowatt at a time. Tell you what, look at that up there. You can see the ocean if you stand up from there by the way. So you stand up on a step ladder. I might live in a caravan on a hill, but I tell you what, if we go up.

It's a nice hill. Made some money. If we ever sell it. Picto, welcome to the podcast. We started. Well, we started a few minutes ago. Good to be here. It's good to have you. And we've got, uh, we've got Mr. Glue Gun himself, Thomas Turlak. Yeah. It's not about me, it's about Shawn. Called the facilitator for today. It's about Tommy. Nah. Nah, it's about you mate. Okay. It's about me. Now, your fans need to know where did Picto come from? Why are you called Picto Bento and not Shawnee, whatever your other name is? Well, on the old Nokia phones, you know how you do predictive text so like I could have ABC would be the Nokia brick.

Yeah. The brick. With snake. I mispredicted text. That was fun. So you just say you type whatever number was S. Yeah. So people would just do that. And I'd always get text messages as Picto because people would do that for Shawn and it just come up as Picto. So Thunder used to just start, my friend used to just call me Picto because of, um, that's how my tech, he'd go to write, Hey, Shawn will say, Hey Picto. And then he just called me Picto. It stuck. So if you were a, you know, a two thousands baby, it just wouldn't have happened.

You wouldn't know. You wouldn't know about it. You wouldn't know the troubles of the Nokia. It's magical. What about, what about Bento? Favorite food? Once again, me and Thunder, we worked at a place called Zenith records where we used to press records, but we called ourselves vinyl-atricians. Thunder called it. He said we were vinyl-atricians. We used to always get Bento boxes from Terry Arky and he'd get the chicken katsu bento. And I was, what was your go-to Bento? Well, I was a hard out vegan at the time for two years, like no animal products. So I'd always get my own special vegan bento, which wasn't on the menu.

And it used to be, so he used to call it the Picto Bento and they knew it so well that he'd come in and be like, just a chicken katsu bento. And they'd go, Oh, I know, Picto Bento. So they knew it as the Picto, that was my own special Bento box, the Picto Bento. It's fantastic. Yeah. That's how it came about. And it's stuck. You've done some things. Done some things. Ticked some boxes. Not all good boxes. Really bad boxes. What's the worst box? The worst box would be... I've no idea where it's going to go either.

No, it did a lot of crap jobs, but the worst one would be borrow roof tiles. I had to sit for 10 hours a day on the end of a conveyor belt. So like the roof tiles would come through. They'd go, they'd be painted, all these different things. And it was a fast conveyor belt. I went through about seven or eight different things. And the last thing before it went into packing was me with two skip bins behind me. And basically, they'd just fly through one by one. And if they were broken, I'd just throw them off for 10 hours a day.

It was like the worst thing. What was your tile per minute? What was your TPM? Well, how I'd make the days go quicker is I'd count the tiles. I'd be like, one, two, three, four. And my mom was broken. So I'd be like, 21, 22, throw it off. What was your record? One, two, I think I got up to about 143. And there was this really crazy German guy at the packing a bit. And if I let one go through, that wasn't, it was chipped. He'd stop the conveyor belt and just speak, like abuse me in German.

Did he call you a pig toy or did he call you a shawty? He didn't even have a name. He was just like, he called me idiot. That's what he called me. Bloody Klaus, not even knowing you know, that's upsetting. So you've had a lot of jobs. You've done a lot of things. What is it that gets you out of bed in the morning? What's the thing? Well, I'm not, I like to get up early, but I'm not a morning person. So the thing I like to do. Riddle me that. Coffee. Coffee was seriously, I'm not joking.

When I used to work at the record place, I'd start at like anywhere between four and six. And the first thing that'd get me up was like, I'd be brushing my teeth is like the coffee. Coffee gets me out of bed in the morning. It's the first thing I think of, I'm like, I can't wait for a coffee. After the coffee, if we're going a little more metaphorically, a little bit more meaning, what gets you out of bed? Deep. Go deep, mate. Go as deep as your body's going to be tomorrow afternoon. What gets me out of bed in the morning?

It's not money. I don't do anything for money. I don't know. Just, man, that's a tough question. If it's the weekend, it's probably like, I want to go for a surf or a walk or a swim, but I don't know. Just kind of going to work and not hating yourself. That gets me out of bed. Like I could, you could obviously make more money and get out of bed and feel miserable, but I'd rather get out of bed and not hate what I do. It's always a bonus. You know, like enjoy your Monday to Friday and every job is going to have its pitfalls and you're not going to love every day.

But if you go to work and don't dread it, that gets you out of bed, not feeling like crap every morning. So I try and do that. Is it, is that one of the reasons why you've had so many jobs? Because you, nah, that was just out of what I was doing. Like I used to play music and stuff. Yeah. So I could only, you know, I was away from like Thursday to Sunday. So you'd kind of have to do what jobs would keep you the boot. Yeah. So who's going to have me from like Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday or Monday to Wednesday.

And that's how you got those, all the random pickings. So many random pickings. What's, cause I'm someone that's had like three jobs, four jobs max. And one of them was like a, I did the spring carnival and I had some food and that was about it. But what is having all those jobs, all those different jobs with obviously different needs and requirements, what's that taught you about the way the universe works? Oh, it just, I think teaches you to enjoy stability. You know, I've got friends who probably have done the same job since they left high school, or they were still in high school and left.

So, you know, coming, getting close to 40, everyone's a bit like, oh, I'm so over this, right? Pretty much just appreciate just like having a Monday to Friday job and having weekends off or something like that. So like just stability. Boring answer, isn't it? It's not a bad answer. I mean, it is. Yeah. Yeah. If you could come up with more exciting things, that'd be great. No, I'm kidding. It did adapt in different environments as well. I couldn't do it now. I'm too anxious of a person to do it now. But back in the day, I didn't really care that much.

So I could just kind of roll into any place and just talk to Hans. The great man. I think that's the thing about stability. Like we all crave routine in different forms. Yeah. Cause you've had higher paying jobs. You had more extravagant jobs, probably. But what led you to kind of figure out and like almost go backwards to go forwards and go and get into coffee? So, yeah, like I, I suppose I was painting houses and it was sweet. Like it's a good, it's a job. It's a good job, but I didn't, you know, I didn't love it.

And before painting houses, I was making coffees, like just as a barista. And I'm like, man, this is tough work. I got to, you don't really make a whole lot of money. And I was like, God offered like to help serving a guy coffees became friends with him. And he's like, you want to come work with me? I was like, yeah, why not? So by doing that and painting, I was still, I missed coffee, but I didn't miss being a barista, but I was like, I'd love to like actually work for like a wholesale company or something.

And then a friend sent me a junior roaster ad, junior, I was 30 or 32 at the time. Not the right age to become a junior. But I saw it and I was like, oh man, that seems cool. Like coffee, but not having to serve it. You know, it sounded kind of like the trady version of coffee. You know what I mean? Like, ah, it's kind of, everything kind of ticked the boxes like, ah, physicality, all this. I was like early starts, like love early start. Keep your hands soft still? Not really. Tommy's got pretty soft hands.

No, not at all. I was like, oh, this is like the trady version of coffee without dealing face to face with the public. And then when I went and met Tommy and Damo, who gave me the job interview, they were like, man, you do realise this is a junior role. Like this is the worst money you could possibly, like a kid could ask for. You could have my money in Maccas. And I was like, you know, how much are we talking? I don't care. Cause I feel like if you really want to find something you love, like you got to start at the absolute bottom.

And that bottom was below the bottom. There was no bottom. This is terrible. But I was like, well, I want to give it a shot. I said, if I work hard, you know, I can move up. And they're like, yeah, of course. So just kind of did it and painted after hours and on weekends to make enough money to kind of live survive. Yeah. And it was worth it because it was the best job ever. That's pretty cool. I was like, this is so cool. Working with two guys that were just exactly what I like about work, like hustle, work hard care, but have a really fun time in the process.

And I was loving it. I was like, I didn't care. Like it was terrible money. And then by working hard, you just kind of progress. Didn't matter that I was 32. Yeah. And I think we've talked about it before that you actually enjoy your weeks as opposed to like, Oh, I'm going to work and I'm hanging for the weekend. We were just having fun and enjoying our work day to day. So it was like, cool weekend as well. Great. Yeah, exactly. You're not like hanging for that money to use on the weekend because you're just enjoying.

Yeah. You don't feel sick on a Sunday night. Whereas a lot of people do it on Monday. I think if you start feeling a little bit, you know, not well on a Sunday night before you go to work on Monday, it's time to kind of. Something's got to change. Yeah. I reckon like, I know it's not easy. I don't have kids and stuff. So when you get a mortgage and a family, it's not like it's not that easy to change, but I don't know. You can look into it, I suppose. There's no point being miserable for 60, 70% of the week.

Now my dad's done the same job for 60 years and he likes it though. He's like, love it. If you love it, keep doing it. Yeah. He won't retire. He should be retired, but he won't retire because he just loves it. I feel like that's what I want to be like. Yeah. I love that because there's like, there's two lessons there. It's one, it's if you don't like it, change it and you should be enjoying every minute, but at the same time you've gone into a job like at the bottom, bottom of the barrel with zero entitlement, you're just going, I'm just going to work hard and enjoy myself.

You had to humble yourself heaps. It was good that way. I was at the time I would have been 22 maybe. So it's a bit easier to start at the, yeah, but when I started, I was 19 but I was 22 and I was in theory in charge of you. Yeah, you work differently in charge of me. There's kids telling me what to do and you would sort of just humble yourself. You're like, I just want to learn. And you had the most open, you're like, I know nothing, but I'm just here to learn and I love coffee and teach me.

And to be honest, when we were looking for that role, like we had so many, we had these like what we would call like over enthusiastic, frothy barista types that like love and obsess over coffee and, but we'd just get nothing done. And we had these kind of people who were in it to like earn heaps of money cause they thought it was this and glamorous. And then Sean came in, we're like, he likes coffee, like we like coffee. He likes the product, he enjoys it, but he's not there to obsess over the details, but he understands the hustle and the effort involved.

And it was like, that is exactly what we wanted. We wanted that combination of someone who cares about the product, but doesn't want to just sit there and like fondle every bit. Yeah. Cause that's what happens with like roasting coffees. You know, I've employed lots of different people and lots of people, first of all, like just want to nerd out with coffee and not actually do the hard work. It's like, sorry pal. Yeah. There's production realities of like, you need to get kilos of coffee roasted packed and out the door. And that is first and foremost, we've got to keep the quality at a good, at a good level.

And that's obviously a big part of our job, but you've got to get coffee at the door and it's gotta be timely. It's gotta be efficient. And these are all the things that is the first thing we look for. And the secondary is that we can teach you to improve quality and do all these other things. If you don't have that kind of drive and hustle to like be like grinding out every day, early mornings, see you later. It's a great, we both work with people that don't have roasteries and it's just like, just headache, isn't it?

Big time, but then you get the, when you get the, when you get it right, it's just like, it's so easy. It's a great mix of like humility and just work ethic. Like anyone and like you guys have obviously employed people, I employ people, if you tick those boxes, you're humble and ready to learn and you're willing to work hard, you will get wherever you want to get to. The rest is almost irrelevant. That's what I tell people. Like when you're like around a cupping table and tasting coffees and people are slurping and you know,

it's saying some pretty elaborate stuff like fondling beans and all these, all these kind of like, and when you've never done it before, it can be quite intimidating. And I was, and when people like, I don't like doing it, it's intimidating. I was like, man, I used to do it and I didn't, I didn't actually contribute for a year. I just listened and just kind of, cause I didn't feel like I could contribute. I was just, I'd listen, taste, think to myself, like, oh, I'm not getting that. Like what's going on here? What's wrong with me?

But it's like repetitive action, train your palate more and more. You do something, you just get better at it. And that's what I tell people. I don't feel intimidated. Just like maybe listen and say what you feel. Don't try and say what you want us to do. What you think you should be saying. We ended up having some really good rules in the roastery and like one of them, but we had these like very animal farming, like commandments written up on the wall for a bit. It was like, no one's opinion is more important than someone else's.

Like no matter your level. Except for Tommy's. And I said, that's true. But it was so important to feel like that anyone. So we've had, we had a bunch, we had Tristan come through. We've had a bunch of young kids come and help in the roastery. And I was like, your opinion is just as valid as mine and Sean's. You have every opportunity to express what you think about this coffee, how you think the process should be done, how the roasting should be done. Like it was a very inclusive environment. I think that's what actually got you to the level quicker than most in this and the people we had underneath us.

Like when you're given that opportunity to shine, you can actually shine as opposed to being told that I know everything. You have years and years and years to catch up to me. I suppose like, what do you think now? Let's talk about it. Like I can give you some pointers. I can help you, but your opinion is just valid. If you taste this in this coffee, you taste this in this coffee. We had a, I employed a friend that's just like a helper in the roastery. So he basically just blended coffee and stuff. And um, we're bringing coffee out and we taste it.

And he, he was not a coffee person, like drank kind of lattes, but he wasn't a coffee person. No, no, no. I'm saying like, cause he's like, cause when you taste it's always like whatever. Um, but he was like, he's a really good cook and he, you know, knows different spices. He's got, he had a great palette, but he was great because he didn't really care. He tasted coffee and we brought out like an espresso and it was salty as hell. I was like, this is salty, but I didn't say anything. And then he tasted it and he was like, Ooh, vegemite.

It's like, yeah, nailed it. No, that's awesome. Cause he didn't care. This is like, I can't taste like vegemite to me. And I was like, actually does probably not what we're going for. Let's work on this. But he was so right. And cause he doesn't care. There's no like preconceived hang ups of being wrong and like, where's like if a young kid who was really into coffee and wanted to impress everyone, he wouldn't have said vegemite. Who knows what they would have, he or she would have said. But yeah, I was just like, that's the kind of attitude you need.

Like don't care. Have you always been humbled? Like where do you think that's come from? Being humble is probably cause it's probably like a drummer in a band. So you've got to, you know, no one cares. So you got to, I love that so much. No one cares. Carry on. Baby of the family and a drummer, probably like when you're the youngest, you kind of get kicked to the side. And a drummer, it's like, no one cares. No, cause that's fine. I don't care. Shout out to all the drummers out there. No, but I don't care.

It's like, if a drummer's standing up and waving his sticks, it's like, sit down buddy. All you had to do is hit a thing. It can't be that hard. You were there. If you weren't there, people would notice you're not there, but they don't want to notice you. So, which is good. I'm into that. I'm like, yeah, it's good to play gigs and stuff. And someone would come up and be like, Hey mate. And I'd be like, here we go. A little bit of recognition here. Then they'd say, can you take a photo of me? I never took it.

I act genuinely do not care. Yeah. That's just you. But I was like, yeah. Happy to be in the shadows. Oh man. But I was like, if you don't, if you want recognition in music, don't be a drummer. Don't be a drummer. Talk us through your illustrious musical grit. It was not very illustrious. I've been told it's very, it's far from illustrious, very illustrious. It's time to pump yourself up. Well, let's pump your band members up. Not much to it. I don't know. Just kind of play with three guys ever since I was like a teenager, a teenager, and then just kind of fell into semi pop being semi-popular, I suppose.

Not full popular, but like you're playing kind of really small venues and then people are there and then stupidly got the band signed to a, like a major label. It doesn't mean anything by the way, but that was silly enough to like, Oh, do you guys want to go to America for like seven weeks and record now? I'm like, yes. And the album was a massive fluff. They didn't make their money, but it wasn't because of the drumming though, surely. No, the drumming was very tight. What was the band called? That band was called Trial Kennedy, which everyone would know.

If you live in Victoria, everyone knows Trial Kennedy. But was it that, it was the kind of band that could travel around Australia and play small venues, which was awesome. When I played music, all I wanted to do was like play a show interstate. So being able to go to literally every part of Australia and have a small following, I was like, this is great. But when someone's invested maybe like 120,000 to make an album, which is maybe not that much, but it's a stupid amount of money. You got to play bigger venues than that.

And it was, yeah, but we kind of fell into that, you know, like we're just mates, probably like the only four kids that were in your music. So then you kind of team up together. Yeah. And then it just kind of went on and like, I did it because it's just all on you, you know, when you got no direction, except love playing music. I love that. Just did it. And then just kind of next thing, you know, just always away. And then while I was kind of playing in that band, played in another band called Boom Gates and that was just like, it was totally different music.

Like you couldn't pick two different bands. I hate this song. This is your top played on Spotify. Cringes every time you play. I hate it. You're going to be proud of it. It's a moment in your life, and it's not your new album. It's an important song. It's an important transition to the music you do next. It's like this song. It's like this is home. Tight drumming though. You didn't hear me drumming this. But yeah. I don't know. It was good fun. What was the other one? Boom Gates. Boom Gates, yeah. Different band, different kind of band.

This was a thing. This is the opposite band. This is easy. We were generally playing this like every single week. It's in our most played on Spotify. Generally love it. It's great. Attaboy. This is like, this is much more you like it now. With just good mates that you like hanging out with and generally people you want to make music with. It's a fun collaborative process. Yeah. And I still play music with like people in both bands, you know, still involved, but just more of like a fun. Yeah. Just enjoying it. Yeah. It's cool. I still enjoyed it.

You know what I mean? That was fun. That was just like lots of different small seven inch releases, one album, but still kind of same thing. Got to travel around Australia and people would come to shows. It was just easy. Yeah. I think that's it. When they'd take guitars and it was just so easy. Big thing man is easy. So like when we're carving coffee back to that, like you could go into this full elaborate life. We've worked at places where it's like, you can be obsessed over for weeks and weeks about buying like one coffee to the point where me and him now all cup of coffee and we're like, yeah, cool.

Bought it. It's like done easy. Well, we're going to complicate things that don't need to be complicated very much as I move the noise. And I think that's what we get along. So yeah, if there's eight cups on the table, they're our three favourite. Let's not even start talking about the five that we're not into because we're not going to use this as just leave it alone. Yeah. Instead of like most people will be like, we want to talk about every cup on the table, even though they're not going to forget about it, push them away.

You're not going to buy them. So just focus on the three that you're into. Like to focus on the things that are important. That's good. Big time. Yeah. What does that, does that, I guess, narrowing of focus just help everything run smoother? Yeah, I totally think just in life it does like keep everything simple. If you overcomplicate things, it just gets harder and harder. Like, yeah, I think just in life in general, it's, it's definitely you. You're a man of simple pleasures as well. Love, love simplicity, love the simple life best to actually hang out with someone who's just appreciates just simple.

How long have you been a comic folk now? What, seven months? Yeah. It's been the best seven months of my life. Yeah. Love it. I just love seeing your face every morning. Big smile. Good hugs. Just loves a hug. Who doesn't love a hug though? Tommy. Tommy likes a hug. I'm okay with a hug. Yeah, we got to work on it. I need more hugs. He's, he hugs, he just won't hug anyone. That's the thing. Every day. I see Sean. Every day, hug, cuddle. Try and see if we can change things. Seriously. Seriously. You're like, I never, I don't know, you probably attested this.

Like everyone that interacts with you leaves feeling better. Yeah. Oh, thanks. A hundred percent. This is the thing we're talking about. It might've been, Hey, we're talking about how is the person you're like describing in a conversation, a legend because they're legend or because your interaction rubs off on them. He's the classic example of he thinks everyone's a legend because he rubs off on whoever he interacts with and they're better because of him. She said, a hundred percent. He thinks everyone's awesome. Everyone is not awesome. Sean. There's some jerks out there, but they're not jerks when you're around because you make them better.

It's, it's exactly how it's positive interactions. I'm trying to take compliments better as well. Brendan, Brendan, Brendan, who I played boom gates with. He's, he always said, like, somebody give me a compliment and I'm like, nah, nah. And he'd be like, take compliment. And I'd be like, ah, he's like, just take your compliment. Don't throw it back at me. Take the compliment. And I was like, okay, all right, sorry. So I'm trying to take compliments instead of say, yeah, thank you. It's good. You've got so many friends. Like I used to think everyone used to come in and talk to me at common folk.

Now he's overtaken me already. No way. The amount of people that come in and want to chat to him. I don't believe that. It's true, but it's, you're just a very easy guy to get along with. Everyone wants to be your friend and be your acquaintance. Just keep it simple. Keep it simple. Like I'm a genuine simpleton. My wife always talked about like, we are simpletons. Nothing wrong with being simpletons. It's the greatest. All about it. And it just stems from like my family is simpletons. You know, like my uncle, when he first came to see, I bought the house and we're like working on it and stuff.

And it's like the smallest house ever on this kind of biggish property. And I was like, Uncle John, I was like, come in and see the house. And he goes, mate, you can live in a caravan under a flight path. And I wouldn't give a shit. And I was like, what do you mean? He goes, it's yours. I don't care, but okay. I'll come in. I love that. He's just, he's like, I'll be proud of you. You bought a house, no matter where it is, how much it was, how big or small it is. He goes, I genuinely don't care because like to work hard enough to buy a house is a commendable thing.

And you know, I was like, Uncle John, there you go. I love that. It's a, yeah, it's cool way to look at everything because it doesn't matter. And like in a world where most of us, where like most of us, most people kind of chase more and more and bigger and better and things. There's a, and I'm definitely finding it in certain ways, except for like books and things, but it's better. Less is better. Oh, a hundred percent. Like I saw that you've got to let my people go surfing book. That guy is like, he's got a lot because of how successful he is, but he didn't mean to be successful.

It's just, he's people bought into his attitude and he never was dictated by money. Like he could have, his business could have gone down many times because he was like, nah, we're not going to use that copy because it actually poisons the waterways where most people in business would be like, don't care if it's poisoning the waterways, it's the cheap. And he's just like, you know, like his first thing when he was building those, the shorts, the things that they, the rock climbers, when he came back to like a rock face, he had climbed and he was like, it's damaged the rocks.

And he's like, I'm changing it. And it's like, we can't because that's your business. And he's like, I don't care. Yep. It's the best thing about businesses that are being built from the ground up of someone that just loves the thing. So like, like Patagonia is this worldwide, like behemoth now that does so much for, like put so much back. Yeah. Started by a guy that likes climbing. Yeah. And loves the outdoors and expects it and wants to look after it for generations. Not just for himself, it's like, everybody should enjoy this. And I'm like, I love that guy.

But he's like, pretty simple. He'd have all the money in the world, but he's like, I like to just work a little bit because I want to go away and get fishing and check out some glaciers for two months of the year. It's like, what a legend. You know, he can probably make more and more money, but he's like, I'm just going to employ people to do that work for me that have the same values as me. It's like, I love him. Yeah. I wish everyone was like that. Yeah. I think the world would be a very different, more improved place if everyone was like that.

Yeah. A hundred percent. Like look after, like if everybody just helped everybody without expecting something in return. Yep. Yeah. Pretty incredible. Yeah. Which is like the opposite of our capitalist society. It's like, okay, what am I going to get if I do this? How much more can I, how much can I squeeze out of this person? Yeah. Tell me about your swimming. Swimming. And the stinky swimming mostly to start off with. So, I'm the president of the Stinky Corner Swim Club. Founder. Founder. And president. Co-president really. There's three presidents, me, Laura and Zeke. Love it. There doesn't mean three presidents in one place since like Point Break.

But they're harmonious. It actually works. We work. We work together well. It's just three of us. We call it the Stinky Brains Trust. Love that. We've got, so if you go to Facebook, Stinky Corner Swim Club, it's a private group asked to be added. I'm admin. I'll add ya. Is there like a vetting process? Nah, nah. Anyone can join. I don't care. You don't even have to swim. But to be a member you have to swim to the pole and back. Yeah. So why is it called the stinky corner? So I lived in, on Beach

Road in Napeen, sorry, in Mentone, in this building, and across the road, this is a crossroad from the beach, and there was these two poles that you'd swim to. And because it's this corner on a south west, yeah there it is. Getting the drink despite the stink? Well yeah because it's an actual corner, and I'm like a howling southwesterly, all um, what is it? Seaweed would get stuck in there, and it would wreck, like it'd stunt man. And so we just, I forget, I don't know who named it, it was like it's the stinky corner, so we just called it.

And because I like to swim, I used to just go out and swim pole to pole by myself, and then my mate Nick joined, always enjoying. He'd just come and swim with me, then my friend Hayden, Nick's wife Lausey, so there was like a group of us who'd go to the poles, and we'd go out on like Saturday morning, and we'd go out for breakfast. It was just a good social activity, but it was also like good for your fitness and health, your mental health, because swimming just makes you feel so good. You never regret a swim, that's what Thunder's dad says.

You never regret a swim. So we used to just swim all the time, but we do like a swim the stink for mental health every year. I think we're doing the fourth year this year, which is like May 28th I think. And that come about, really unfortunate circumstances, you know, but it's like doing something good out of like tragedy. But we had a friend who I knew from when I was young as well, like we did this random tape course together, but his name is Tim, and he was best friends with Nick and Lausey, the co-founders of the stink, and he was a really vibrant, happy guy.

I know I didn't, I knew him, but not super well, but they were like best friends with him. Lausey grew up with him, Nick best friends with him, and he struggled with mental health, and you never pick it. He was the happiest guy, like always funny, the class clown kind of guy. And Nick was always like, gotta get Timmy down, it'd be good for him, you know, and I was like, oh man, I could never see him struggling. Then Tim had come down, he did a few swims with us now, and then incredible swimmer, surfer, really fit guy.

And every time he'd come down for a swim, it was just so funny, and I just couldn't see it. And yeah, wife, two kids, his own kind of business, and he took his own life, which was just like, oh man, you're so sad. And when people try and tell me like mental health isn't a thing, it's like, well, it is, because why would you not want to see your kids grow up? You must be that sick, that if you don't want to see your kids grow up, just because it's not like a broken arm, if someone's broken their arm, and they have their arm in plastic, it's like, oh, that's not a broken arm.

Something's broken, and if you're going to enjoy life, like life is the most valued thing. If anybody can keep one thing, it's alive. So if you don't want it anymore, then you're obviously quite sick. So yeah, unfortunately, he took his own life, which was, yeah, so bad. And out of that, myself, Mac, and laws were like, oh, we should do, we should do like an actual swim for mental health and give proceeds to like his, Tim's family, that was associated with like, it's called like dancing with the black dog, like breaking the stigma for mental health.

So then we just did one. We've been doing it every year. And it's fun as well. There's no like, you know, just to hop online to enter, it's just like, roll up. The first year we gave, we made like a necklace out of rubbish. You know, so these guys came down, these try guys who were like, pretty fit dudes, and we're like, well done, you won, here's some rubbish around your neck. You know, it's like, it's, we also kind of have fun. Yeah, like the serious kind of message behind it. But at the same time, it's so fun.

And like last year, we had like fake poos into like medals. There's your fake poo. Yes. You know, people love it. Yeah. And you raise a lot of money every year. So we just do it every year. It's great. And it's so easy to organize that we basically go, I go over to the house, pick a date yet. And the Mentone Life Saving Club have been involved like they've been, let us they pull out some boats for us. And sick. It's great. Yeah, love it. How do we get involved? Just roll down. When, where, how, who, what?

So for anyone that's sitting and not driving, hit Facebook up stinky. Stinky Corner Swim Club. Yeah, Stinky Corner Swim Club Facebook group. I haven't even put it in my phone. Oh, put it in your phone. I think it's like, I think it's like- I'm upset you're not still running the, the Picto Nokia. I think it's the 28th of March. I'm pretty sure. We'll update it. We will update. I'll put it in the show notes. I think it's yeah, I think it's the 28th of March because last year it was, when was it last year? I'm looking on my phone.

Sorry. It was late March. I don't need my glasses. This is really small. Anyway, I think it's the 28th of March. It's exciting. Yeah. So basically you just come down to say like 10 or 15 bucks and you get a swim cap. Oh, which is cool. You become a member of the world's great swim team. You don't even have to go like, I think the circuit is around a K, 1.2 K, but you don't even have to do it. You can just like, just touch the pole and come back. We just like people to get involved, but I've had lots of people because they're like, I want to swim.

And they've gone into swimming and they're like, man, I feel so good for just swimming. Like my cousin this year, like when she didn't want to do it last year, but she was too nervous. And since then she's been swimming with some friends. She's like, man, my body's feeling so much better from swimming, but you don't have to do the whole thing. Just get in, come for a splash. Just chuck some floaties on it. Go for a swim. Yeah. There's no kind of, you know, there's some people who come down and swim hard. Just whatever. Just do what you got to do.

Yeah. That's good. I love that. Yeah. So I think it's the 28th. We'll confirm. Like around 11. Then we have a barbecue afterwards. It's a dream. But I don't know how footy I'll be there. With bells on. Speedos. Speedos. Get the buddies out. I want to do a winter soul stink. So in the middle of winter, no wetsuits allowed and you have to swim to just the pole back. I mean, that'd be cool. Teach me to swim. I'll bet you you're amazing. I'm not a great swimmer. I'm like a rock. He's really, he's dense. What about tomorrow?

What are you doing tomorrow? Tomorrow I'm doing a rip swim. Rip swim. So fill us in. Point the pea to point Lonsdale. So it's like three and a half K's. Solid. Through the heads. Know what I mean? Very solid. A part of a group. But the way I got sold on it was my buddy goes, Hey, want to do a team swim from point to point? And he's like, it's like three and a half K's. So I was like, Oh, that's about 800 meters. And you signed up. I was like, yeah, love that. I mean, I was into it and then like paid my money.

I was like, this is cool. And then he's like, Oh, I messed up. We all have to swim the actual distance together as a group. And I'm like, Oh my God, man. I love that a lot, but it's like, positive impression. Just get it done. 40 people all up swimming. You have a kayaker. And which team has a kayaker? Yeah. And you got to stay close because it's too dangerous. If you know, if you start getting sprayed, they're like pulling from the water because it's just crazy water out there. Yeah. But hopefully it's going to be the worst thing is, is like looking at the week ahead and you know, like if it's sunny, it's, there's just a sun.

And if it's raining, there's rain clouds. The one thing you didn't want is the wind logo of wind. That's literally the worst thing. It could have been like hail and it would have been fine, but I looked on Saturday and it's the wind logo. It's going to be windy. Yeah. It's going to be like 50 K east, south easterly, which isn't the worst wind because it would kind of blow us over, but could also blow us through the heads. Yeah. True. Which it means. At least it will scare all the poor Jackson sharks away. Yeah. Hopefully I'm probably the weakest swimmer in the group as well.

So I'm like the, I'm, I'm, I'm the runt of the litter. So if anyone's going to get eaten, I'll be the little guy tailing off the back and the great white will just come and get me. But I'm also probably the skinniest. I'm probably the smallest. So you're not going to get enough meat from one of the fatter guys. Go somewhere with a bit more substance in it. Yeah. But it's going to be good. Like I'm so nervous. Like every time I think about it, I need to go to a poo. I'm serious. I feel sick.

I went and watched the, they got like a, a video, video of the 2018 swim. Yeah. I just like watched it and just went straight to the toilet. Oh no. It's big chop out there. Like, you know, the waves don't break, but it's like the big mounds like, yeah. And that's what makes it harder is when you swim in chop, it's like your breathing gets all kind of messed up and you got to swim over the waves. So you're using more muscles. What kitty are you allowed to wear? You're allowed to wear a wetsuit, but we're not wearing a wetsuit.

Oh, because the team captain, Len, he's like, if you wear a wetsuit, you get an asterisk next to your name. And I was like, yeah, so we don't want an asterisk next to our name. I said, but we could, if we don't wear a wetsuit, we could have a DNF. Like it did not finish. And he goes, we'll have respect. I was like, oh, yeah. So budgies. Well, I wear the kind of bike shorts. Oh, get some budgies in here. I'm too hairy. I'm gross. Shave. You'll swim better. Ah, don't want to shave. I'll be fine.

Just like, but it's going to be nerve wracking. We're going to do it. Hopefully we'll do it. The only reason I reckon we won't do it. Shift that language. You will do it. We will do it. The only reason if we weren't going to do it is the chopper. It'd be so choppy that we'd just be getting thrown everywhere. And they might be like, guys, tile out. There's going to be boats out there. Sure. Are there going to be any big boats? You can see the spirit. Well, well, no, because the spirits leaving tonight. But yeah, you have to, they recommend like, this is how they sell it as well.

They're like, during your swim, you might have to stop for like five to 10 minutes as in like, just chill in the water because you have tread water. Yeah. Because the ships have to go through the heads and they sell it to you as the best bit of the swim. I'm like, it's not the best bit of the swim. You couldn't watch a big ship go past you. I'm like, this is terrifying. I'm like, man, these big ships. So it's like, you might have to stop for a bit. Tell me there's a live stream. We can watch this on tomorrow.

Should we put GoPro in my head or something? Yeah. Just go live on Facebook. You can go live in the Stink Swim corner group. The more I'm starting to shake. Seriously, I get nervous. Well, yeah. You've done the work though. I have done the work. I do feel, I feel fit. And I know, I know I can swim that distance. So where's it going? It's just more of the conditions when you don't. The stuff you can't control. Yeah. But yeah. Because we all stay together. Yeah. Look out for each other, which would be cool. Yeah. Yeah.

Good team effort. It'd be a great team effort. Hopefully the kayakist is in the right direction. The kayakist. I love that. That's a word. We had a mate who was going to be our paddler and he's like, I can't do it. And he was, we did a swim with him last Sunday. Our friend Josh, he's deaf and blind in one eye. And he's like, guys, I've got to sit on your right hand side because it's your right eye that's blind so I can't see it. And he's also a photographer that loves ocean photography and stuff. And we're swimming.

We're like, where's Josh? And he's just like paddled out and he's taking photos. Mate. So we're all like, it's pretty, like we're kind of lucky that maybe Josh isn't coming with us because he can probably get sidetracked and we'll take photos. Go and yell to him to help you. Like we're all over the shot. This is our swim to like stay together and swim out in deep water down from like right of Blairgowrie. And I was like, where's man, I'm feeling kind of a little bit vulnerable right now. If this is the heads, I'll be sharing myself.

And he was just off that night. He's sending me videos of us swimming and I'm like, that's that video. It's just directus. Joshy, massive legend. I love that a lot. That's very cool. Yeah. It's kind of, I kind of wish he was paddling for us because it'd be even better. But at the same time, I'm like, they're giving us a guy who's like done it every year. Safety first. Yeah. It's good to have a bit of experience. Has anyone in your team done it before? No. One of the guys I haven't met, apparently his dad did it.

Yeah. So that's cool. Like one degree of separation, I guess. Yeah. Yeah. But it's quite, you know, like when I watch the video, there's like older, like a group of older ladies that did it. Yes. Like families do it, which is cool. Yeah. Awesome. 3.2k. It's a long way. Yeah. It's not, yeah. If you get a rhythm, it's fine. It's more if you kind of get out of your rhythm. Yeah. But in the video as well, like people were getting to Point Lonsdale and like crying. Cause they were caught. Cause they made it. Oh, cause they were so happy.

You're kind of both, I think, both like, I can't believe it made it. So I'm a bit like, I didn't really want to see him crying. I would think of like that feeling of elation when you get there. It's wonderful. The swim team, I mean, is such a weird group because you get like, you know, the kind of guy who loves to swim fast and he's like a footy player and he's a winner. You know, he's a winner where I'm just like, I'm not a winner. I'm just, I'll just partake. He's like, come on boys, let's swim hard.

And I'm like, let's just swim. Let's just swim. Let's just cruise. And he's like, pussies, come on. Oh man. So I sent him a message this week going, please don't swim off on me. Please don't turn me out. And he's like, I've got ya. And I'm like, do ya? Cause he's the kind of guy who might see the group a hundred meters and be like, we can get this group. And I'm like, it's not a race. It's not, it is not a race. Yeah, definitely. So I hope he doesn't kind of push us to that level where we're just like exhausted.

Okay. Yep. You'll be right, mate. We'll back you in. So what's, uh, what's next for Picto? What are you excited for? What am I excited for? Not much. These are the things, simple pleasures. Honestly, there's not like, you know, most people would be like, I'm excited for this holiday or this or this. Like you kind of very content guy all the time. I wanted to see my garden grow. Good answer. Go hang out with your wife and your dog. Yeah. Love it. Go for a surf on the weekend. Like, yeah, it's so refreshing to hang out with someone that's like just happy with tomorrow as opposed to like a year from now, two years from now, the future.

You're like, tomorrow's going to be sick. We'll go on a ventilator later in the year. That's exciting. Go for a surf. I don't know. Maybe. Um, but yeah, little things like really like watching my garden grow. That's good. The dog's kind of ripped up my lawn. A little bit upsetting and I've put some sand down, but yeah, I love the dog. So I was kind of let it have a racetrack. I'm like, you can have a racetrack. This is the guy that was not going to let the dog sleep on his bed. Yeah. There's been many photos of his dog.

Also many. Yeah. You showed me your photo. It's out of laziness though, not love. No, no, no, no. It started from laziness. We're now like, I do enjoy it where the dog's like, get up. It's like, man, it's six in the morning. And so I realised that if you just let the dog hop on the bed, it's content. And then you get to sleep for longer. But now, yeah, she taken it a bit too far. She's kind of pushing you out of there. Yeah. Tell me I was having a dream the other night that I was getting like a cigarette burn in the middle of my back.

I was like, oh, I just had this weird dream. And I kind of came to and I can still feel something in my back. And I was like, what's going on? And it was her paw. She's trying to push you out of bed. When did the dog get into bed? It was like two in the morning. I'm like, I didn't even know you got in. And I'm like, come to. Stuff like that. I'm a clean guy. Dog hair. Stuff like that is why I want a dog. It's pretty cool. Yeah. And the dog will never hate you.

No, that's true. It's true. Give us, give us some unsolicited advice for the people that don't follow your enjoyment of tomorrow and today. People that just look 12, 18 months ahead and they're like in such a rush to get there. They forgot to forget to enjoy the day. Like what's, what advice would you have for those kind of humans? Well, it's like whenever I kind of get like that, my wife, she's always like, could be gone tomorrow. You could be gone. You could have a car crash on the way to work. So don't stress over it.

It's so true. It's like, cause I can sometimes I can stress about, Oh, I've got to do this. But it's, it can all just be gone. Like I know you have to plan. You have to be an adult. Bit of both. Of course. But at the same time, it's like, just, it can literally all be gone. Like, like, like that. So just enjoy, like I love getting home from work and like cooking dinner and watching trash TV on the couch with my wife. It's like the best where I never used to, I was always had to be busy and had to be on the go.

And it's like, you just have to just enjoy simple things. Cause that's like what you do every day is never going to change unless you want it to change. Of course. But you know, like just enjoy having dinner with your friends or something. Enjoy if you do, you know, if you play footy on a weekend, you love it. Like really kind of enjoy waking up on a Saturday morning, being excited for football. Or if you play music, like if you love playing music, like get out for that gig you're going to play on Saturday night, you know, just enjoy every day.

Like just look forward to the next day and just, I don't know, it's pretty crap advice. It's fucking great advice. Like, cause like you definitely find that like there's a group of people that live for the weekend and they skip over five days of the week. There's a group of people that are so stressed and I've definitely been in this group, so stressed because they're trying to work so hard. They get home and they're still going and going and going. They don't enjoy that. Well, like I'd be in the party of like go hard and then the weekend is just crash and try and reset and refresh.

Yeah. And not just that it's like, if you, if you're working, like don't get me wrong. If you want a big house and you want a boat and a jet ski and an investment property, like power to you. No, that's not my bag cause it's quite too much effort, but it's cool. I get like, I respect it, but it's like if you want something because Joe down the street has it, then you're just going to be competing with everyone for the rest of your life. Don't get something to try and keep up with your friends. Cause I'd probably, I'd definitely be one of the lowest money earners out of my friends.

I don't care. Like I've got some friends who have been really successful in business and big money earners, but they do it because they love it. And they're great people as well. They actually, you never know it. Does that make sense? Yeah. But then you, we all know people that have seemingly got it all, but you're not happy. No. Whereas like you've got much less in comparison, but it's so much happier day to day. Yeah. And just enjoy the simple things like that. I think, yeah. Yeah. I've got a Corolla for this 2004 Corolla. Love it.

Which is still kicking off. You know, like I love that car. I'm like, I don't need a fancy car. It's missing a hubcap. As you can see from that photo, you know, I was a little bit disappointed when I lost that hubcap. It was cheap in the car. It really looks like a crap car now. With the hubcap it kind of looked a little bit. We got to find your hubcap. If anyone has an extra hubcap for a 2004 Corolla. Yeah. Lost it on the way to Phillip Island. I've tried to find it, but we'll get past it every day.

It's vintage. It is vintage. But you know, like I think. Character. Yeah. If you try to keep up with people, then you're never going to be happy. Maybe I'm the dumb one. Maybe I need a jet ski and a boat and an investment property. Maybe. But then after like 90 seconds on the jet ski, then you're sick of it. What are you going to do after that? Don't be sorry to jet ski people, mate. We don't care about jet ski people. That's one demographic that, yeah, no one likes jet ski. I had to go on a jet ski and after 10 minutes, I was like, 10 minutes is a lot.

Yeah. 90 seconds. Cool. You go fast. That's sick. Unless you're in waves. It's so boring. Hopefully a jet ski saves you tomorrow. Yeah. I know. I can always, that is going to be bad. Bit of irony. If I'm drowning and a jet ski saves me, I'm going to look like a real. You're just going to be like, nah, don't worry. Don't worry. Where's my kayaka? Yeah. Where's my wind charge something? I don't want that. Yeah. I look like a real prick. It's good advice because I think it's, if you are the kind of person that wants everything or wants all these things and you need to work hard for it, then by all means, work hard for it.

But if you're the kind of person that you're like, oh, I'm pretty happy at the moment, but everyone else is telling me I should want this. And you shift your lifestyle and your way of living because of what society deems as successful, then that's where you're going to run into that dissonance and not actually enjoy. Exactly. And not saying that if you don't work hard, you're not going to, I feel like I work hard. I don't think money is a good kind of indicator on hard work, you know, like youth workers and stuff, you know, they'll probably be on the lower end of, and they work extremely hard.

Yeah, definitely. Nurses, you know, they probably don't get a nurse and have great money, but they should have more. Yeah, a hundred percent. The amount of hard work they have to put in teaches. You know what I mean? It's like money isn't an indicator of how hard you work. Definitely. Know why you work hard. Yeah. Good. Any more for any more? Any more for any more? Nah. Tell us a story. I don't know. He's got so many stories. He's a liar. I'll tell you a quick story while I'm a little bit terrified about swimming in the heads tomorrow.

Every five minutes. We'll back you in. I do surf, but I'm not a good surfer. I surf. I more just go out. I get waves. I go straight. That's pretty much me. I'm not like a shred lord. You love it. I love it. Yeah. Love it. That's how I try it. I'm like, if you like, yeah. Pinto pinto, shred lord. No, far from that. But my buddy who's doing the swim of this tomorrow is like, Oh, you want to come and surf the heads. So I'm like a big swell wraps around. You need the right women.

It's like an incredible wave. Like it is incredible. And he's like, you want to come surf it? It's like, but it's a big dog wave. You got to know what you're doing to surf out there. And I was like, no, man. I'm like, not a very good surfer. And he's like, no, you'll be fine. You're good enough. And I was like, fuck it. All right, I'm coming. Let's do it. So you ride in and we get down there and there's a jet ski and two guys. So the tone two guys, and it was like pumping and he's like, no, there's no one out.

He's like, man, I've never seen it like this. And I was like, wicked. And he's a pretty crazy guy as well. When you go surf and some kind of big stuff, he'll be like, you're right. You know, you'll be fine. But here is like, okay. Right. So he gave me some serious talks like, all right. You know, don't if you're in, if you paddle into the channel, the rip will take you out through the head. You're going to have to come through the beach. It's going to be sketchy, but stay whatever it is. There's that kind of marker on shore is like, don't go past that.

Otherwise you're getting too far. I was like, cool done. We paddled out and I kind of waited down the line a little bit and got a couple of waves, like, cause I'm a goofy footer. It's a left hander. I was like, got a couple of ways. I'm like, man, this is easy. And it's cause when you're surfing, you can just see, it's just like a normal beach. It's just like, I was like, this is chill. I don't know what he's talking about. This is so calm. And then a big set came through and I got a set on the head and it was like heavy.

And I was like, that shook me up a little bit. Like, Oh, okay. I kind of get it now. Got a couple more waves. And then another big, my mates like big sets coming, you know, and I was like, so, you know, like at a point break, if I kind of paddled out to my right ticket, so I didn't get the set on my head. And I was like, cause I got hammered from that last set. I was like, might try and keep this. I really don't want to get this on the head that took it out of me.

So I got over it and I was like, exhausted, just paddling over these big six foot kind of bombs. And I was like, taking my breath. And I was like, Oh man, I'm glad I didn't get that on the head. Didn't get on the head. And then I looked down and I couldn't see sand. It was just complete black. Yeah. And I was like, Ooh. And then I looked down the line and my mate was like a hundred meters from me. And then the marker, he said not to go past. And I was like, well past it.

And I was like, Oh shit. And so I tried to fight the rip and I was, and it was literally like someone was pulling me by my feet and I was like getting nowhere. I was exhausted. I turned around this big ships, like literally a hundred meters from me. And I was like, like massive container ships. And I was like, shitting myself. So he's like, just go with it. Don't get scared. I was cracking myself. I'm like, what am I doing here? Like I'm genuinely scared for my life. Where, where am I going to get taken to?

And I was just getting further and further. I was like, cool. And I'm like, man, help, you know, what are you doing? He's looking crazy, just catching waves. And I'm like, Oh no, I'm going to have to come in on the beach, which is super rocky and even big as well. I'm like, Oh man, I don't have to ditch my board and just swim it in. And I was just like, man, and then out of nowhere, the jet ski guy who was like, was towing in surfers, come and get you. I was like, Oh my God.

I was so exhausted. I've never been that tired in my life. I was like, thank you so much. And then big sets coming like big sets out of the back. And he's like, jet skiing alone. He's like, jump on the wave. And I was like, no. And he's like, dude, this is like yours. Jump on. And I'm like, no, I'm exhausted, man. And he's like, he's like, dude, look. And we're just next to this wave. And he's like, this is sick. And I was like, take me out of the fucking line. He's dropped me off and I just took a big whitewash into the water.

I was like, Whoa. And I was like, Whoa, why wasn't anybody out? And as soon as I kind of came in, surfers started rolling up. Yeah. Okay. It wasn't slack tide. Yeah. So we were surfing it on this like really heavy rip. We usually go out, you know, and there wasn't 40 people out there. Like usually it's because it wasn't slack tide. And I was like, man, I'm never going out to the heads in my life again. And now tomorrow I'm swimming. Very good. I love that. No wetsuit. Well, from everyone that's going to be listening.

Good luck. Thanks. And I'm sure we'll do a follow up at some point, maybe before the stick swim or jump on and do it. Or this could be your swan song. And we, this is a great little memorial. Say hi to Harold Holt for us. This could be played at a service that I won't be attending. Or you might be there physically. I'll be there maybe physically, but not spiritually. I'm going to release this today. So I have no qualms about releasing it if you do pass. Nah, you could make more money like Prince's like vaulted music.

Yeah. Maybe not. Nah, you're going to be fine. I'll put in the work. Hey, just follow old mate Dory's advice. Just keep swimming. I'll keep swimming. I'm about to go in a float tank. Yes. To try and relax and get into a zen like state. Yeah. Have you done a couple of times before? I've done it once. What did you, why are you doing it? What did you get out of it last time? Just really relaxed. It took me about 20 minutes to get in the zone. Yep. Once I got in the zone, I was like, didn't know which way was up.

That's awesome. Yeah. It's a cool space to be. Yeah, I'm going to do it. You need to get Tommy to get one. I've got a voucher. I need to be a bit more chill. It's good. I worry about you sometimes. Anyone that hasn't tried one, get around the float tanks because they are incredible. They are really good. Just go with it. Go see our friends at the Private Sea. Proud sponsor of the podcast probably. Probably. I'll expect to watch it now. All right, it's been a pleasure. Tommy, good from you. Lads, can't hear handshakes. So maybe like high five?

Fucking oath. Love it.