Replay Interview with Professor Greg Whyte OBE for services to Sport, Science and Charity and Olympian.

Transcript

Speaker: Hi, I'm Trent Maxwell.

Speaker: And I'm Lee Mason.

Speaker: And we want to welcome you to our Live, Learn, Survive podcast.

Speaker: Since 2018, Lee and I have travelled the globe and met face-to-face over 26,000 children in six countries across three continents.

Speaker: We've created a series of award-winning children's books.

Speaker: And Max's Rescue Squad are now founders of the Live, Learn, Survive charity, all focused on teaching teens and young adults life skills that not only help themselves, but help others too.

Speaker: We take what we do very seriously ourselves, not so much as you assume we'll hear.

Speaker: So let's spend the next half an hour together with some fun, inspiration and kindness and we'll try and learn something too.

Speaker: It's actually half an hour this week everyone, it's an hour so... Bonus time, bonus time.

Speaker: Welcome Leigh.

Speaker: Yeah, where am I Maxie?

Speaker: I'm sat next to you for once so yeah, welcome you back to the office.

Speaker: It's good to be in Brisbane.

Speaker: It's nice for you to show up at the office for once, put a day in.

Speaker: Yeah, exactly, exactly.

Speaker: So Maxie, today we are incredibly lucky so...

Speaker: Very proud today to welcome a very special person to our podcast, Professor Greg White, OBE, but I'm sure he won't mind if from now we call him Greg.

Speaker: It's really difficult to summarise an introduction to Greg because it's really hard to know what to leave out.

Speaker: So I'm going to do my best to give this exceptional man a worthy introduction.

Speaker: Awarded the OBE for services to sport, sports science and charity, Greg was voted one of the top 10

Speaker: science communicators in the UK by the British Science Council.

Speaker: Can't even say it, never mind that, be it.

Speaker: An Olympian in modern pentathlon, a European and world championship medalist and holder of the Norseman triathlon black t-shirt, which we are going to ask him about today.

Speaker: Currently Professor of Applied Sport and Exercise at John Moores Uni in Liverpool.

Speaker: Director of Performance at the Centre of Health and Human Performance at 76 Harley Street in London.

Speaker: And there's still more.

Speaker: People may know Greg.

Speaker: He's the voice of authority for exercise, physiology and sports exercise performance in the UK.

Speaker: Many people will know him from Sport Relief.

Speaker: And in actual fact, Greg has helped raise over $45 million for charity.

Speaker: That's amazing.

Speaker: Comic Relief challenges.

Speaker: He helped David Williams win the channel, the Gibraltar Straits and the length of the Thames.

Speaker: John Bishop's Week of Hell, which I remember living through with him.

Speaker: And he's got over 18 celebrities at the top of Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania.

Speaker: He's done that twice.

Speaker: Yeah, exactly.

Speaker: But equally impressive, Maxie, he was brave enough to swim with you at sunrise in Caversham Lakes.

Speaker: So with all of that warmest of welcomes, we are absolutely thrilled you were able to join us.

Speaker: Welcome, Professor Greg White.

Speaker: Welcome, mate.

Speaker: and it's definitely we can call you greg amazing thank you so much please it's so good listen thanks for having me it's great to be on really great to be i love what you guys do i'm a massive fan of what you guys do so it's thanks mate that's that's it done for me i can leave

Speaker: Yeah, mate, I was so fortunate.

Speaker: So people that don't know, I've actually met Greg, or myself and Leah have met Greg face-to-face back in April in 2022.

Speaker: I was going to say 2023.

Speaker: Yeah, no, yeah.

Speaker: But yeah, we went to Cavish and Lakes, had a good swim.

Speaker: We did an awesome swim there.

Speaker: We were doing some charity stuff.

Speaker: We also did a hypothermia video to showcase, you know, a Max Dressy squad of what happens if you do get hypothermia.

Speaker: Absolutely.

Speaker: I actually did suffer from...

Speaker: mild to moderate case of hypothermia.

Speaker: You did.

Speaker: And Greg was there to look after me and help me out.

Speaker: But we had a really good chat and I'll be putting that video back up this week to showcase that great chat we did have.

Speaker: So again, thank you for coming, mate.

Speaker: And it's really good to see you.

Speaker: You're looking well as always.

Speaker: So how have you been, Greg, since April?

Speaker: It's really interesting that you talk about hypothermia because you guys are currently in Brisbane in the sunshine having a lovely time.

Speaker: Today in the UK, it is currently minus 7 degrees centigrade.

Speaker: Water temperature, open water temperature, somewhere in the region of about 1 to 2 degrees centigrade.

Speaker: It's just above...

Speaker: icing over and in fact many many lakes and ponds in the UK have iced over it's only the flow of the rivers that are actually stopping them from from icing over so it's it's it's quite a timely you know timely reminder of the importance of hypothermia and cold.

Speaker: I also know too mate we're so passionate on drowning prevention uh in the UK over the summertime you're very all year round I should say Greg but you're very vocal on trying to get the awareness out there to limit the drownings

Speaker: And here in Australia, unfortunately, there's been 43 drownings in the last couple of weeks just through summer on the coast, inland.

Speaker: And, you know, we just need to get the message out there.

Speaker: And we're always trying to achieve that common goal of bringing the numbers down.

Speaker: But just quickly,

Speaker: We're dealing with the summer here, but with the winter there, there's been some tragedies over your way as well.

Speaker: Wasn't there, unfortunately, four young boys?

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Yeah, do you want to quickly elaborate on that?

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Yeah, I mean, tragically, not too far from it.

Speaker: And again, I think what I love about what you guys do

Speaker: is that we have a massive problem with learning to swim here in the UK.

Speaker: But really, for me, the bigger problem is actually around water safety education, which I know you guys are so passionate about.

Speaker: And tragically, what we saw just before Christmas was three young lads actually were a pond that had iced over.

Speaker: um as kids do you know we were all the same we were kids they they walked out into the ice unfortunately the ice simply wasn't thick enough they fell through uh and one of their buddies who was on the shore um decided to go out and try and save them and sadly all lives were lost and you know and it's a real i mean it's a real tragedy because it's it's not an issue of of being able to swim necessarily it's just about water safety and knowing that you know don't go out onto ice and thin ice

Speaker: And knowing what to do if if something does happen, you know, go and get get help first and make sure you do the right thing if you're trying to rescue somebody.

Speaker: And, you know, it is it really is all about that.

Speaker: And I think to me, what's interesting is that this year or last year, two million children left school in the UK unable to swim.

Speaker: And it's a statutory requirement of what we call Ofsted, so of the education system that all year six kids, so 11 years old, should be able to swim.

Speaker: But because of lockdowns, because of the engine crisis and closing swimming pools in the UK, lots of kids haven't learned to swim.

Speaker: But for me, the critical factor of that is that the best time to educate kids around water safety is when they're learning to swim.

Speaker: And of course, you remove that process, you remove the ability to educate around water safety.

Speaker: And sadly, tragedies like this happen on too regular a basis in the UK.

Speaker: And it's been, you know, like we're in summer now, but, you know, it's been the same here, like literally every day there's been, you know, I think in Queensland last week, there was a headline about a drowning in,

Speaker: five out of seven days in the paper.

Speaker: It's an interesting one, isn't it?

Speaker: Because I think, you know, we talk about hypothermia and cold water exposure.

Speaker: And I think actually what we think is that it is just on, like we've got at the moment, winter days when air temperature is very cold.

Speaker: But actually, unless you're accustomed, unless you're acclimatized to cold water, when you get in the sea, even in Brisbane, you know, when you get in the sea, if you are unaccustomed to that and unacclimatized to that, that water is cold enough to induce a cold shock response.

Speaker: You get this hyperventilation with the waves coming over the top.

Speaker: If you're not a very strong swimmer, if you don't know what the rip and the current is doing, you know, that cold can be as problematic in the heat of the summer as it can be in the winter.

Speaker: In fact, probably in the winter, we're probably more mindful of it because it is really cold, you know.

Speaker: So, yeah, and it's over 50% of drownings in the UK occur in that, you know, what is our summer period between that sort of June and August period.

Speaker: And it's, it's because kids, you know, it's a hot day.

Speaker: You look at the water and you look at it, doesn't it?

Speaker: So in you go.

Speaker: We took the opportunity to come last April because we knew that it was like, um, going to be a much needed, um, after lockdown, people not having swimming lessons, um,

Speaker: We just thought, you know what, the timing's right.

Speaker: Let's just go and just do anything that we can.

Speaker: If it saves one life, then it's been kind of worth it.

Speaker: But interestingly, some of the drownings here, you just said, Greg, about send for help first.

Speaker: Quite a few of the drownings that have been here in the last, what, two or three weeks have been parents going in after a child.

Speaker: The child's got out.

Speaker: The parent's been lost.

Speaker: Yeah, so we're trying to really get the awareness out there that rescuers do drown too.

Speaker: And if you don't have situational awareness, you don't know what to do, you can't swim yourself, you always need to go in the water with a flotation device.

Speaker: So, yeah, we're just trying to get that message across.

Speaker: And the wonderful thing since we saw you in April, Greg, is that now we have our own charity.

Speaker: So we are going to be able to fundraise ourselves and

Speaker: to do more and there's more that we're going to talk about later on to see yeah because then we can be like in direct control you know we don't have very expensive boards or things like that and all their all that that like sort of makes things tricky we can be really um efficient with every dollar we get so that's really exciting for us so um

Speaker: This is about you.

Speaker: So we probably better start by, you know, you're in the hot seat now, Greg.

Speaker: We are like, you know.

Speaker: You're scared of it.

Speaker: You thought Norseman was tough.

Speaker: You can just wait for this.

Speaker: Max has got his question.

Speaker: Yes, I was saying we haven't even asked a question yet.

Speaker: It's going to be a long night.

Speaker: All right.

Speaker: So, okay.

Speaker: So question one, mate, we've got about close to 20 questions here, but we'll start off with number one.

Speaker: So how did this all begin?

Speaker: What was your first step?

Speaker: Wow.

Speaker: That's an interesting one.

Speaker: I mean, I've been swimming since I was, I mean, competitively swimming since I was six years of age.

Speaker: Those days are sort of gone now, I think, where you can actually be competitive that young.

Speaker: But certainly, I'm an old man, so back then you could do it.

Speaker: But fundamentally, much like it is for many kids, it's actually about parents.

Speaker: And my mum and dad were absolutely incredible.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: And what I always reflect on what they did is what I try and do now I've got three kids now, and that is that they were incredibly supportive.

Speaker: They were never pushy, but very supportive.

Speaker: And of course, as a swimmer, I started life as a swimmer.

Speaker: You've got to be really supportive and dedicated to get up at five o'clock in the morning.

Speaker: to go early morning swim training.

Speaker: So, yeah, so, I mean, I've been around swimming my entire life.

Speaker: I think the interesting thing for me was that I do, I mean, as you guys know, but I'm an ambassador for the Royal Lifesaving Society here in the UK.

Speaker: And much of that is because my dad was a lifeguard and an examiner for the RLSS.

Speaker: I became a lifeguard.

Speaker: My brother was a lifeguard.

Speaker: My wife was a lifeguard and now, funnily enough, my eldest daughter,

Speaker: who's 17, she is now a lifeguard.

Speaker: That's amazing.

Speaker: To some extent, I think if you cut us in half, it probably says RLSS all the way through.

Speaker: Amazing, amazing.

Speaker: And same, my mum was an RLSS examiner.

Speaker: So exactly the same.

Speaker: So very similar.

Speaker: I think I grew up on the side of a pool.

Speaker: I think I could probably swim before I could walk because swimming was life, you know.

Speaker: It was such a big thing.

Speaker: It was amazing to see too, and you cut yourself short here, from six years old starting competitive swimming.

Speaker: But, you know, you went to the Olympics twice.

Speaker: It's been a great career, you know.

Speaker: And it's, yeah, I mean, I swam up until, you know, classically up until the age, swimming being my sort of main focus, up to the age of about sort of 14, 15 years.

Speaker: And then, as always happens, you know, it's part of my social circle.

Speaker: You guys know this, you know, when you're part of a life surfing club or a swimming club or any club, you know, to some extent, it's actually a part of your social circle.

Speaker: So I went because my mates were there.

Speaker: You started to see around sort of 15, 15, classically, you see the attrition of your mates.

Speaker: And in that interim, I was lucky enough to find the sport called modern pentathlon.

Speaker: and then I was lucky enough to be good at it I worked incredibly hard to be good at it and yeah lucky enough to become an Olympian and I was a world European medalist so it was a great career but what's interesting here is that some of the highlights we're talking at the moment in January and

Speaker: uh every year as a monopent athlete every year i would come out to us uh and we would have a training camp in in sydney up in the north shores uh in narrowbeam um and we'd come out for a month and then from there we'd go down to melbourne then melbourne onto canberra and compete in the world cup in canberra my favorite win ever uh was actually in canberra in 1989 a long time ago awesome um

Speaker: But it was, it was a great career and it afforded me the opportunity to travel the world and meet great people.

Speaker: It was, you know, I was very, very fortunate.

Speaker: Amazing.

Speaker: Amazing.

Speaker: So that like leads into the question I've got for you next then, Greg.

Speaker: All of that as a career, how do you go about making important decisions?

Speaker: Do you have a process that you go through?

Speaker: It's an interesting one.

Speaker: I think, you know, I think that one of the most important things, and I see this in you guys and we all experience this when we meet people.

Speaker: For me, it's about passion.

Speaker: is that when you are making a decision, I think critically what you've got to be is you've got to be all in on making that decision.

Speaker: You've got to be passionate about it.

Speaker: And I think the one thing, I'm sure we'll talk about it, but working with others is that I think that there's an awful lot you can do for others, but what you can never do is create that passion, that desire.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: And so I think, you know, if you are making a big decision, I think the crucial thing is to make sure that, you know, lots of things about making sure it's right for you, making sure it's structured in the right way, et cetera.

Speaker: But I think fundamentally what underpins all that is about passion and the desire to really achieve what the goal is.

Speaker: Yeah, I agree.

Speaker: That's a great answer.

Speaker: Great answer.

Speaker: Love it.

Speaker: Mate, so there's two here.

Speaker: So I'll start off with the first one.

Speaker: Greatest strength that you have.

Speaker: Greatest strength.

Speaker: It would probably be a different answer if you asked my wife.

Speaker: I'm married too, man.

Speaker: Yeah, we've all got that.

Speaker: Yeah, exactly.

Speaker: Greatest strength.

Speaker: I guess, you know, you could probably see it as a weakness, I guess, but I think my greatest strength is I hate to be beaten.

Speaker: So you're very good.

Speaker: I absolutely hate it.

Speaker: And I think because of that, what that drives is a tenacity,

Speaker: a tenacity to achieve in whatever that is.

Speaker: And, you know, it's not necessarily about winning in terms of sort of racing winning.

Speaker: I think it's, you know, I hate to lose if I set myself a goal.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: So it's like, it's yourself having, um, you're off.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: So, yeah.

Speaker: Yeah, it's a competition with self.

Speaker: I think that's really important, actually, because invariably, I mean, even in sport, you know, one thing I learned through sport is the fact that you can only control.

Speaker: There's this sort of lovely saying that people talk about control the controllables.

Speaker: And I think within that, there's only one thing you could do, and that is control yourself.

Speaker: You can only control what you are doing.

Speaker: And I think, you know, what sport teaches you is that what you can't do is you can't control what the competition is doing.

Speaker: And I think it's a real failure if you try and adapt what you're doing based upon what others are doing.

Speaker: And I say this to my kids constantly, you know, when they come back from having done sport, whichever sport it is that they're doing that particular day, disappointed or happy.

Speaker: The one question I always ask them is, look, did you give it 100%?

Speaker: Because I think all we can do in life and whatever it is, is give 100%.

Speaker: And I think if you have given it 100%,

Speaker: experience tells me that what you can what you'll never do is look back with regret you never regret it because it's everything you had you may not have achieved what you wanted to do uh you know for me personally i never won the olympic medal i won a world and european but never an olympic medal but i don't look back and think you know i should have worked harder because i couldn't i gave it 100 it was everything i had it just it just wasn't enough so

Speaker: And that, to me, I think is absolutely crucial.

Speaker: Give it everything you've got.

Speaker: Give it 100% and you'll never regret it.

Speaker: Amazing.

Speaker: And I'll just say the second part of that is your biggest weakness.

Speaker: And you kind of touch a little bit of base, but would you say, you know, just the weakness of failing to – you didn't want to lose?

Speaker: Of not giving up.

Speaker: Of not giving up?

Speaker: Yeah, I mean, maybe it is.

Speaker: I think, you know, I think what's interesting on that is sort of ages – classically with this, I think –

Speaker: you know, going back to what we was talking about earlier on about that sort of desire piece, actually it's very difficult to accumulate experience without actually doing it.

Speaker: And I think certainly one of the mottos that I have is that, you know, for, for,

Speaker: I'm sure we've all met people who say, oh, yeah, I've never failed.

Speaker: And to my mind, if you've never failed, then you have never tried.

Speaker: Yes.

Speaker: Oh, my God.

Speaker: Who can say that?

Speaker: Success is never guaranteed.

Speaker: And so I think to that extent, you could deem it as a weakness.

Speaker: But I think actually, look, if you failed, what it does mean is you're pushing yourself and you're pushing that envelope.

Speaker: You're moving outside your comfort zone, all those sort of little sayings that we talk about.

Speaker: I think, you know, so is it a weakness?

Speaker: I'm not 100% sure it is, but it's the way that I live my life.

Speaker: I'm not saying everybody else should do that.

Speaker: So would you say then, based on all of that, would you say, Greg, you've had more setbacks than successes?

Speaker: Or when you're on the back of it, do you think you've had more successes than setbacks?

Speaker: I'll tell you what I would say is that I only remember the only one.

Speaker: Exactly.

Speaker: Well, that's right.

Speaker: That's the whole point of it.

Speaker: That's the whole point of it, isn't it?

Speaker: It's like, you know, most people do say.

Speaker: It is.

Speaker: you fail way more times than you ever, you know, but the truth is that you just let those go and you just keep going.

Speaker: You just go for the next thing.

Speaker: You keep going.

Speaker: Don't stop.

Speaker: I think you've got to as well.

Speaker: I think, you know, the one thing you learn with life as you get older is the fact that, look, I can't go back in time and change it.

Speaker: And so therefore, you know, what has gone is gone.

Speaker: I think what we can do and I think what is crucial, you know, and Einstein coined it beautifully.

Speaker: And that is that effectively,

Speaker: to paraphrase it, stupidity is repeating the same thing over and over again and expecting a good result.

Speaker: Now that's it.

Speaker: So I think what we do is that we should, and I think that's what I do, is you learn from those areas when you haven't been successful and

Speaker: But at the same time, what you do is just park them.

Speaker: So you take the learnings forward.

Speaker: But what you do is you don't take the failure forward.

Speaker: Yeah, and back to what you were just saying before about the past.

Speaker: Like I have this thing in my head is the past is the past.

Speaker: You can't change it.

Speaker: It is what it is.

Speaker: It's happened.

Speaker: You know, for good, the bad, the ugly, right?

Speaker: the future doesn't exist yet.

Speaker: All right.

Speaker: So you could set yourself up for a brighter and bigger future by training and doing certain things, but that's not guaranteed.

Speaker: The only thing that is guaranteed is the present moment.

Speaker: I always say this with Lee is, you know, this given step that we've taken, whether it's left or right,

Speaker: you're in control and, you know, as long as you're on the good path, positive path and you're happy, that's all that matters.

Speaker: Yeah, and you've made the decisions for the right reasons and you've thought about it all.

Speaker: You can't do anything else, can you?

Speaker: But it's okay to make, like I said, mistakes and stuff like that.

Speaker: But like you said, you've got to learn from those mistakes.

Speaker: You've got to learn from those things.

Speaker: And what Einstein said, if you keep doing it, expect a different result.

Speaker: Then you're crazy.

Speaker: Yeah, exactly.

Speaker: Exactly.

Speaker: Okay, go Max Maxie.

Speaker: Yes.

Speaker: So how do you deal with times when things go wrong?

Speaker: I think self-reflection is something that generally we're not very good at.

Speaker: And I think the easiest thing, and certainly when we're young, what we do is we like to look around to see who we can blame.

Speaker: And it's something, again, you should never beat yourself up for that because it's just a natural thing to do, really.

Speaker: As you look around and think, oh, it's your fault, it's your fault.

Speaker: And actually, for me, one of the best things I've learned through my career is just take a really close look at yourself in the mirror.

Speaker: You know, what is it that you could have done differently?

Speaker: And it might not be obvious.

Speaker: You know, sometimes there are clear things that, you know, you just didn't, you know, if you're entering a race or something, you just didn't train hard enough.

Speaker: You didn't commit enough.

Speaker: Then that's quite obvious.

Speaker: But actually, there are often subtle things, the way in which you deal with people, the way in which you treat people, the way in which you communicate the various different things to people.

Speaker: You know, all of those sort of things.

Speaker: It's not just the hard skills.

Speaker: It's also the soft skills within that.

Speaker: But for me, I think the most important thing that if you don't get to where you're trying to get to, I think the first place to start is self-reflection.

Speaker: Take a look at yourself.

Speaker: have a long, hard, honest discussion with yourself and then look to see what, in having done that, then look at these areas about, you know, what worked, what didn't work.

Speaker: And I think, again, what's interesting for me is that often what we do is that we spend perhaps just a little bit too much time looking at the things that didn't work, the bad things about it.

Speaker: when actually what we should do is also focus on things that did work.

Speaker: If we're going to go again and we're going to try again, then what we want to make sure is the things that we did really well, we want to keep those and potentially enhance those, whilst at the same time those weaknesses that we've had,

Speaker: we've got is actually work on those weaknesses to improve those what what we're trying to do is just bring everything up to an excellent level rather than let things drop yeah that's awesome you're full of wisdom today you're giving me giving me so much from watching you all week to talking to you face to face like this mate this is amazing so best career decision greg what a career one of them you would say was a really good one

Speaker: Best career decision.

Speaker: Wow.

Speaker: Do you know what?

Speaker: I was the director of research for the British Olympic Medical Center.

Speaker: And I remember I was at a university post at the time.

Speaker: And it was a real punt.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: to go in to take that job in a sense.

Speaker: I was the inaugural director of research.

Speaker: I'd never had a director of research before.

Speaker: They really didn't have a research culture at all at that time.

Speaker: So it was one of those jobs that I could move outside of the comfort zone, you know, a nice academic position, you know, very clear what I was doing.

Speaker: Actually, I love and still love teaching.

Speaker: Into what was relatively unknown, although it'll be in my area.

Speaker: So I took that post and I had four incredible years at the British Olympic Medical Center.

Speaker: I looked after the prep, particularly the environmental prep was one of my specialty areas of five Olympic Games, including summer and winter.

Speaker: And it was just it was a magnificent experience and it taught me an awful lot and actually opened up a huge number of doors.

Speaker: So I think I guess the message in that is, you know, don't don't be afraid to make a change.

Speaker: I think often the best decisions.

Speaker: And you obviously went into a role that, like you say, it was brand new.

Speaker: There was no roadmap.

Speaker: There was probably no.

Speaker: position description, there was no one there to give you onboarding.

Speaker: You probably walked here, there was a desk and, you know, like here we get, you know, and that's like amazing because you can really then put your stamp on it.

Speaker: And there's so many times we say this with what we're trying to do and now like having a charity is,

Speaker: We know we operate a little bit differently.

Speaker: We're trying to maybe do things in a way where maybe traditional education has maybe failed.

Speaker: So it's like there is no regma.

Speaker: We are winging it by every single day.

Speaker: And I can't believe some days that we've done what we've done.

Speaker: for just two random individuals.

Speaker: Two knuckleheads.

Speaker: Two knuckleheads.

Speaker: I mean, Bradvan and Robin, look at us.

Speaker: Like, seriously, you know, we rock up anywhere and just know everybody will have a great day and that's all we can promise.

Speaker: I'm not even a lot of time, mate.

Speaker: But you know, what you have though is what we spoke about right at the very beginning.

Speaker: And that is what I love about you guys is passion.

Speaker: You know, and that passion is infectious.

Speaker: And I think that invariably, that to me, you know, that'll give you 50% of the success you're looking for.

Speaker: We always say people might be as on ability, but they will never be as on enthusiasm.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Yeah, perfect.

Speaker: And that's the way it should be.

Speaker: Greg, there's been plenty of achievements, mate.

Speaker: And like I said, this week, I've seen many online.

Speaker: But what has been your greatest achievement to date?

Speaker: I know it's a big question to ask, but is there something that really stands out achievement wise?

Speaker: A friend of mine asked me this the other day, I was having a coffee with a mate of mine, and he said to me, what is it that yanks your chain?

Speaker: What is it that really gets you out of bed in the morning?

Speaker: And I think the paradox is, and it comes back to what you guys are doing, the paradox is, I would say it's all the work I do for charity, because I do all that work completely for free.

Speaker: um i invariably it cost me money you know i mean i absolutely take no fee and and nothing from that um but it's it's the one area that gives me the greatest uh the greatest joy and and certainly you know obviously with comic relief and sport relief

Speaker: Now with a charity, a big charity here in the UK called Children in Need, I've supported over 36 major challenges.

Speaker: In fact, that figure you gave now is probably up to over £65 million for charity, whatever that is.

Speaker: No, it's 1.2 billion probably.

Speaker: Yeah, yeah.

Speaker: It's a lot of money.

Speaker: Sorry, 100 million.

Speaker: Sorry, go in.

Speaker: I don't know.

Speaker: That's why we have an account.

Speaker: I'll take the 1.2 billion.

Speaker: That's why we've got an account, honestly.

Speaker: Yeah, yeah.

Speaker: That's not us.

Speaker: Keep him.

Speaker: But that, I love that because I've had the opportunity to, as much as you guys do as well, I think there is no greater joy than seeing where you've made a difference.

Speaker: And I've had the opportunity to travel to various projects in the UK and around the world to see where the money that was raised has been spent and the difference that it makes to people's lives.

Speaker: And I think there's nothing to my mind, there's nothing better than that.

Speaker: So for me, the best thing I've ever done is.

Speaker: I think, you know, that reminds me of the first time, the first trip that Maxie and I came to the UK and I,

Speaker: You know, it was just a complete random that we ended up coming.

Speaker: I was coming back for a birthday.

Speaker: Maxie happened to be in Europe.

Speaker: Someone invited to open a surf club.

Speaker: No budget.

Speaker: Nothing, you know, just like a bit of a joke, cheeky cheeky.

Speaker: And us two said yes.

Speaker: He will come over.

Speaker: So there we were in Southbourne in Bournemouth.

Speaker: And...

Speaker: This was our, and we still keep in touch with this family and these two little lads.

Speaker: These two little lads from Portsmouth travelled for the day, Zach and Max.

Speaker: They sat on the beach on a freezing cold day, wrapped in a blanket, and their mum and dad just, like, could not believe, like, you know, we had them joining in, we had them playing games.

Speaker: They were running up and down the sand, and we were like...

Speaker: whoa, you know, that was cool.

Speaker: This is the start of something.

Speaker: We didn't even have Live and Survive.

Speaker: We didn't know, we didn't have a name.

Speaker: We didn't have a notebook.

Speaker: That day was like, it was almost like a, actually, you know, and I remember saying to Maxi, you know what?

Speaker: You have a, almost, you have a platform and you almost have a responsibility and I'll help you.

Speaker: Here we are.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: and there you are now it's amazing what you can achieve though isn't it because if you're to look back 10 years ago what you achieve now even the last six months in the last three months it's just it's crazy even having a charity we can't believe that we've got that and we've got that because basically an amazing team of lawyers in Brisbane said just what you said oh we love you too we'll help you

Speaker: And it was like, you know.

Speaker: Hey, listen.

Speaker: That's how life works.

Speaker: And we just turn up with cupcakes.

Speaker: That's it.

Speaker: Like, you know, like, you know, so.

Speaker: Well, listen, I'll do anything for a cupcake.

Speaker: Yeah, exactly.

Speaker: And so will our lawyers.

Speaker: So any secrets, Greg, that you can share that might inspire someone else?

Speaker: Anything that's helped get you where you've got today?

Speaker: A little bit of a secret Greg formula.

Speaker: Well, I'll tell you what's interesting, and you've actually just coined it, I think, and that is your team of lawyers.

Speaker: I think life is about teamwork.

Speaker: I have this little saying, and that is, look, nothing great is ever achieved alone.

Speaker: Yes.

Speaker: And even sometimes we look at people who think, oh, they've done it.

Speaker: They've done it themselves.

Speaker: And it's never true ever.

Speaker: You know, when you look behind them, what you see is you see this team of people and it includes family, includes friends.

Speaker: It can include professions.

Speaker: And for me, I think if you are looking to achieve something, I think the first place to start is to identify the team that is going to support you.

Speaker: Now, crucially, it's not just about having a team.

Speaker: You've got to make sure that team integrates well, that it works well together.

Speaker: And I think as important of all of that is make sure that team works for you.

Speaker: And it's not always about the most expensive or the most experienced or the highest profile.

Speaker: It's actually about people that work for you and share your dreams.

Speaker: Yes, they share the vision.

Speaker: They share the vision and the passion about it.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: So teamwork, I think, you know, teamwork makes the dream work.

Speaker: And, you know, for me, make sure you've got the right team around.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: And we've been really, we've really, really tread carefully with that because it is, it's like, you know, when you've got the right team, it's magic.

Speaker: It really is.

Speaker: And it only takes one bad one in the team that makes it very not magic.

Speaker: So, yeah.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Yeah, it's true.

Speaker: It's true.

Speaker: And it's, I mean, you know, that's a good point because it is about managing that team, you know, and I think, you know, as, as a leader, you know, you're the leader of the live, learn, survive team.

Speaker: And so, you know, you have to sometimes make those difficult decisions to, you know, to offload some members who just aren't working the right way and then reappoint, you know, and that, and that's, you know, it's not, often people think, oh, you've been lucky.

Speaker: No, no, no.

Speaker: You've worked incredibly hard and you've taken the right approach.

Speaker: And that's why leadership within that team is absolutely fundamental.

Speaker: And what you guys are for Live, Learn, Survive is exactly that, is great leaders.

Speaker: Yeah, we love what we do.

Speaker: We're so passionate.

Speaker: A lot of sacrifice, a lot of travelling, a lot of big days for Lee in the office.

Speaker: It doesn't come easy.

Speaker: But adding on to being leaders and as we get bigger with the charity and more and more people get involved,

Speaker: setting good values within the charity and kind of reflect that onto the people that are joined to kind of follow suit and try and create a positive and great environment for everyone.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Mate, back to me.

Speaker: I'd leave by example.

Speaker: 100%.

Speaker: Exactly.

Speaker: Walk the walk.

Speaker: Walk the walk.

Speaker: Mate, do you believe it is a good thing to set goals?

Speaker: It is absolutely fundamental.

Speaker: And the first starting point to achieving anything in life is a goal.

Speaker: Now, I think often where we get sort of confused within that is I think that invariably people set goals, they don't achieve that goal.

Speaker: And so therefore it's because they're setting goals.

Speaker: So they sort of give up on the goal setting thing.

Speaker: I think the important thing is to remember that goals themselves, you've got a big long-term goal.

Speaker: You cut that goal down into medium term goals and then into short term goals, all of which should be planned and structured in the way that's going to deliver to this long term goal.

Speaker: And then also each of those goals really needs to be constructed well.

Speaker: I think invariably when you look at failure of delivery of goal, invariably it's because the goal is the wrong goal.

Speaker: So there are lots of different models for this.

Speaker: But, but,

Speaker: different ways sort of to think about how you structure those goals.

Speaker: But there are lots of sort of rules, which I think if you do follow, you can make sure.

Speaker: So, you know, are they timely?

Speaker: Embarrassed what people do.

Speaker: So, you know, we're in the new year.

Speaker: New Year's resolutions are a classic for that is that people set goals.

Speaker: You know, I want to lose three stone.

Speaker: I want to lose, you know, five kilos by the end of January.

Speaker: And you think, well, you know, unless you sever a limb, that's not going to happen, is it?

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Because it's not timely.

Speaker: Is it achievable?

Speaker: Is it measurable?

Speaker: There are all these sort of factors that are associated with it.

Speaker: But I can tell you, without goals, you rarely achieve.

Speaker: Yeah, I agree.

Speaker: I agree.

Speaker: So, basing on those goals, my question is with the extreme, you know, elite level that you've worked at, how do you go from good to great?

Speaker: What's that extra that takes you from good to great?

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Well, that to me, that's the mark of excellence.

Speaker: I think it's an interesting one.

Speaker: I often talk about this with things like coaching.

Speaker: There are two things about great coaches.

Speaker: Firstly, is that they're able to replicate success.

Speaker: Having a single success with a single individual or a single team is one thing, but being able to replicate that over and over again, that's quality coaching.

Speaker: But I think probably the most important thing about quality coaching is it's the ability to make good athletes excellent.

Speaker: not to take excellent individuals and keep them excellent.

Speaker: I don't necessarily think that's a mark of great coaching.

Speaker: And so I think it's really important that what we do is that we, you know, and from a personal perspective, I think this is why what we need to do is think about pushing ourselves outside of our comfort zone.

Speaker: because it's there where the magic happens.

Speaker: You know, it doesn't, it doesn't, sitting on the sofa is easy.

Speaker: That's the bottom line.

Speaker: It's only when you push yourself, you fully understand what you are capable of achieving.

Speaker: So I think that movement, that movement, fundamentally that movement from good to excellent won't happen while you're sat on the sofa drinking a cup of tea.

Speaker: Yeah, it's the extra.

Speaker: 100%.

Speaker: Maita, mindset is so important.

Speaker: How do you keep mentally tough?

Speaker: I'll put you on the right day, Greg.

Speaker: I need to know.

Speaker: You are.

Speaker: I'll tell you what.

Speaker: These are tough questions.

Speaker: You're doing so well.

Speaker: You know, we knew that you would be the man with the answers.

Speaker: I'll take on the Northman again.

Speaker: What was the question again?

Speaker: My answer is so important.

Speaker: How do you keep mentally tough?

Speaker: So how do you keep pushing through mentally?

Speaker: Well, I think much of it.

Speaker: I think what's interesting is that what we like to do, and it may be an excuse that we sort of have, is that we look at people who are successful or achieve incredible things.

Speaker: And what we do is, oh, yeah, they must have been born with that.

Speaker: And we assume it's innate, you know, that actually people are born tough.

Speaker: And so therefore they're able to cope with it.

Speaker: Where I think, you know, there is an element of that, but I think the vast majority of it is it's what we call nurture.

Speaker: It's the learning, the development of that mental toughness.

Speaker: And I think often, much like it is when we talk about goal setting, is that mental toughness is developed and it's built and it's built progressively.

Speaker: What you don't do is, you know, you're not sat on your sofa drinking your cup of tea and the following day, all of a sudden you take on, you know, the English Channel or the Northman or, you know, the Race Across America, whatever it is, is that actually what we understand is that physically we have to progress and we have to overload and all these sort of classic things that we do with training.

Speaker: But to my mind, it's exactly the same thing with the brain.

Speaker: Is that what we've got to do is we've got to develop the brain.

Speaker: We've got to teach the brain.

Speaker: We've got to give it the opportunity to believe that it can achieve.

Speaker: And I think, you know, you do that by challenging it constantly.

Speaker: So you go a little bit longer, you go a little bit harder, you know, and in doing that, it just grows exponentially across time until you get to the point when you've got mental toughness and mental toughness is fundamentally built on experience.

Speaker: Well, it's funny you say that I do.

Speaker: I run a lot and I do all sorts of different exercises, but the amount of times I've been on the treadmill or doing that last kilometer or last mile,

Speaker: And on my watch or my phone, it says, you know, you're finished.

Speaker: But I go that little bit extra just to go, you know what?

Speaker: I'm feeling all right here.

Speaker: Could be at level 16 on the treadmill.

Speaker: And there's something in your brain saying, come on, keep pushing, keep pushing.

Speaker: You can do it.

Speaker: And really for me, it slows my breathing down, makes me feel even more stronger.

Speaker: And it's kind of like a power thing.

Speaker: And I love that.

Speaker: But like I said, I've had to start somewhere.

Speaker: And that was a couple of years ago doing the old block run to running.

Speaker: X amount of kilometres now.

Speaker: And, yeah, I'm so – I love mental toughness.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: It's definitely a thing.

Speaker: You are very tough and focused.

Speaker: There's more to go.

Speaker: There's more to come.

Speaker: Yeah, there's lots more.

Speaker: Yeah, Maxie just goes for a run and he comes back 20Ks later.

Speaker: That's like, you know, he just – okay, 20.

Speaker: He goes, yeah, I'll get a text.

Speaker: He'll go, oh, I just did 20.

Speaker: I was feeling all right.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: That's all right.

Speaker: All right.

Speaker: Okay.

Speaker: Fine, fine, fine.

Speaker: So speaking about that mental toughness, I loved this in your Norseman film, The Happy Bank.

Speaker: Tell us about The Happy Bank.

Speaker: I loved this, Greg.

Speaker: I think this is such gold for younger people to have this as a thought process.

Speaker: Well, you know, being successful in life requires time, it requires effort, it requires tenacity and dedication.

Speaker: And what you are constantly doing is dealing with ups and downs.

Speaker: You know, often the best analogy I can give you is that when we watch...

Speaker: elite sport, what we're doing is we're watching the end product of that process.

Speaker: And so, you know, you can watch the Olympic games and you watch them stand on the roster and when they get their gold medal and the flag goes up and you think, oh, yeah, I'd love to do that.

Speaker: And what you're not seeing is the, you know, five o'clock in the morning when it's tipping down with rain and you really don't want to do it and you're sore all over, but you've got to go up and go to another session and

Speaker: And, you know, it perturbates.

Speaker: There is success, but also there is failure.

Speaker: There are dark times.

Speaker: And those dark times can be really difficult to deal with.

Speaker: But in my opinion, that's where the greatest growth occurs is by challenging yourself and actually really pushing it.

Speaker: That's that's really what matters.

Speaker: And so I think through through whatever it is that you're taking on, you know, you can adapt this into business or any other walk of life, really.

Speaker: is that it's how well you cope with those dark times.

Speaker: And where the happy bank comes in, to my mind, is that nothing good comes easy.

Speaker: And if you think about your brain as what we like to call the central governor, it's the controller.

Speaker: And its job, fundamentally, is to keep you safe.

Speaker: That's really what the brain is doing.

Speaker: And so with that happy bank, what the brain is telling you, when the going gets tough,

Speaker: When you're on the treadmill and you've still got a kilo to go, the brain is saying, you can stop now.

Speaker: You can get off.

Speaker: Now's the time to ease back.

Speaker: And at that point, it's really, really tough.

Speaker: Now, by pushing through that and actually driving and putting more effort in and just finishing that session off, what you do is you implant into the brain this belief that you can do it.

Speaker: Just squeeze it out a little bit more.

Speaker: I have this other saying that I use a lot on Comic Relief on that, and that is squeeze it out.

Speaker: And the great analogy here is that, you know, in the mornings when you get up and you look at the toothpaste and it's in the tube and you think, oh, it's empty.

Speaker: And yet if you give it a, give it a, just a little bit harder.

Speaker: There's always something in there.

Speaker: And that, that to me is what we are.

Speaker: The humans are like that.

Speaker: It's just squeeze it out.

Speaker: There's always something more to give.

Speaker: But the crucial thing about that is that what you're trying to do is fill this happy bank.

Speaker: You're trying to invest in the brain, the belief that you can achieve this.

Speaker: And so that when you come to a big challenge,

Speaker: And you get midway or three quarters way or even towards the end of a big challenge and you're starting to think to yourself, I cannot do this.

Speaker: I can't keep going.

Speaker: All of that investment you've made into this happy bank, you can then start extracting.

Speaker: You can start withdrawing that investment.

Speaker: And that investment is saying you can do this.

Speaker: You have done it before.

Speaker: You've done the work.

Speaker: And the more of that that you've put in, the more you've invested,

Speaker: the more reserves you've got to withdraw.

Speaker: In other words, the more training, the more preparation, the more planning that you have done, the greater your chance of delivering.

Speaker: It's amazing, Greg.

Speaker: I've had the same tube of toothpaste for the two years there.

Speaker: No, no, no.

Speaker: Seriously, you can't have a trouble with him.

Speaker: And if you do trouble with him, just always take toothpaste because it's like, you know, bring your own toothpaste and bring a spare tube for him because it's like that's just the day it works.

Speaker: There's also another quick analogy.

Speaker: I know we're smashing through these questions, mate, but there's one that I always think too.

Speaker: You know, picture you're 80 or 90 years old on a rocking chair at the front of your house on your veranda.

Speaker: And your grandkids come up to you and ask you, so tell us about your life or tell us a story.

Speaker: And if you just sit there rocking up and back going, yeah, you know what?

Speaker: Life was pretty good.

Speaker: There was no real dramas.

Speaker: Everything was swell.

Speaker: Yeah, a couple of little hiccups, but yeah, it's all good.

Speaker: Your story's over within a couple of minutes.

Speaker: But where people want to hear, the kids want to hear the ups, the downs, the good, the bad, the ugly, the triumphs, the good times, the bad times.

Speaker: And I always think of that as like you –

Speaker: Whenever you're going through a bit of a rough spot, it's just like a movie.

Speaker: It's like there's a crowd going, come on, you can do it.

Speaker: How's he going to react from this?

Speaker: It's a bit different than Toothpaste, but I always do think of that as well.

Speaker: The rocking man.

Speaker: I think you're right.

Speaker: I think the bottom line is interesting people are people who do things.

Speaker: they're not necessarily the people who are always successful.

Speaker: They're the people who have challenged themselves.

Speaker: And just have a go.

Speaker: And in that challenge, they make themselves interesting.

Speaker: Just have a go.

Speaker: So speaking of Maxi, next question.

Speaker: So we're up to question 14 here, mate.

Speaker: So Norseman film, at the end you say, so what's next?

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: I understand that was back in 2018, 2019, and it's been a couple of years for COVID and stuff like that.

Speaker: But what is next, mate?

Speaker: Well, actually after that, so we went into COVID, it was 2019, so we went into COVID 2020, as you guys know as well as us.

Speaker: And I was planning another extreme try that year in Patagonia.

Speaker: So it was called the Patagon Man.

Speaker: That got cancelled.

Speaker: And so not wanting to lose.

Speaker: Coming back to that.

Speaker: Yeah, we've done all the prep and everything and the team was together.

Speaker: So we went up and did a challenge in northwest Scotland, a place called Torridon, which is where they hold what's called the Celt Man.

Speaker: It's another extreme triathlon.

Speaker: but we went up there and I went up there and went solo with the team we made a documentary and actually this week we're about to release that film this week which is

Speaker: Well, we're going to be sharing it.

Speaker: So people listening to this podcast will be able to see it on our socials and yours as well.

Speaker: So, yeah, I look forward to seeing that.

Speaker: Yeah, absolutely.

Speaker: Absolutely.

Speaker: And we also... Well, I'll tell you what, particularly the swim.

Speaker: The swim on that was something... And then this year, yeah.

Speaker: The swim on the Torrigan.

Speaker: It's worth watching the film just for that.

Speaker: Rarely, if ever, am I scared of open water.

Speaker: But what's the film you see?

Speaker: They're not trying to give too much away.

Speaker: Is it, it's not the cold water, I'm guessing?

Speaker: Well, it's cold.

Speaker: I know it's cold, but it's just a little pink.

Speaker: But the cold doesn't scare me.

Speaker: It's darkness.

Speaker: And the interesting thing is that the lock, so this, they call them locks in Scotland, this huge lake, but this actually, this huge lake opened up into the Atlantic.

Speaker: And so in this lock, they actually got whales.

Speaker: And I remember chatting with the with the one of the specialist, the wildlife specialists down there before we did the swim.

Speaker: And I said to him, I said, have you ever seen orca in the lock?

Speaker: And he said, well, it's interesting you should say that.

Speaker: He said, because we do get orca at the mouth of the lock.

Speaker: Wow.

Speaker: Now, for me, right, sharks, I get it, right?

Speaker: But orca, they don't differentiate.

Speaker: If they take a bite, it's definitely over.

Speaker: So I said to him, I said, that's great that you've not seen him in there.

Speaker: I said, but have you looked at five o'clock in the morning and you picked black?

Speaker: He said, no.

Speaker: He said, but on the positive, if you do spot any, you'll be the first one to do something.

Speaker: I said to him, I'm not sure you're completely understanding what the worry is here.

Speaker: Oh, my life.

Speaker: And then you did the Thames swim.

Speaker: We know you did the Thames swim, the Upper Thames.

Speaker: We were invested in that, Greg.

Speaker: I'll tell you what, the times I woke up at three o'clock in the morning worried where you were and how your shoulder was going.

Speaker: I was like, you know, I was like, oh, man, that looked tough.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: It was crazy.

Speaker: It was crazy.

Speaker: And, you know, so what I decided to do, and, you know, again, exactly what you guys are doing is actually about raising the sort of profile, as it were, of drowning prevention.

Speaker: That's the critical thing, really, and water safety and all of that.

Speaker: I just figured that that would be the best way to do it.

Speaker: So I swam what's called the upper Thames.

Speaker: You don't have to swim the tidal Thames anymore.

Speaker: So the upper Thames, 135 miles.

Speaker: And my plan was to do it in four days.

Speaker: So anybody doing the calculations, that is 50,000 meters a day.

Speaker: And so day one set the scene at 53,000 meters on day one.

Speaker: It was an interesting time.

Speaker: But it was a really, really tough challenge.

Speaker: Just I think from a speed perspective as much as anything else really what I was trying to achieve in terms of speed.

Speaker: But so important.

Speaker: And tragically, it was sort of a three-week period of the challenge.

Speaker: And in the UK, we had a heat wave.

Speaker: It's one of our hottest times of the year.

Speaker: And it's obviously in that zone.

Speaker: I swam it in July.

Speaker: And that is the period of highest number of drownings.

Speaker: And actually during that period, 50, five, zero young people lost their lives to drowning in the UK alone.

Speaker: So it was such an important, for me, it was such an important message that we were trying to raise.

Speaker: And as much as anything else, the challenge was great, but actually the traction we got with the message and raising the profile of water safety was enormous.

Speaker: It was a wonderful thing to be part of, albeit incredibly important.

Speaker: When we finished, it was like surreal, really, when we actually, the last day of our trip,

Speaker: in April, we ended up at Clacton and we were with the amazing beach lifeguards down at Clacton.

Speaker: And the reason we sort of knew Clacton was on our radar because even like, say, two or three years before that, we were contacted by a mum who her son had actually drowned under the pier at Clacton.

Speaker: And we sent books to his school in Ben's memory.

Speaker: And mum just sort of checked in with us once in a while.

Speaker: Anyway, we ended up going to Clacton and spent the afternoon with the lifeguards.

Speaker: And Ben's mum actually came down.

Speaker: And we were like right by the pier at the lifeguard station.

Speaker: And she spent a couple of hours with Dee.

Speaker: And she was just absolutely.

Speaker: And she said that that was the first time she'd actually been back to the beach.

Speaker: Mm-hmm.

Speaker: And I said, well, if we've done nothing other than today, bring you back to maybe, you know.

Speaker: Bit of closure.

Speaker: Bit of closure and, you know, walk along the ocean and not be quite, you know.

Speaker: And, yeah, so, you know,

Speaker: Awareness is so important.

Speaker: So important.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Do you know, I was, my specialty, sort of academically, my specialty is sudden cardiac death in young kids.

Speaker: And I established the first centre for sports cardiology dedicated to that factor.

Speaker: And, you know, we've all sort of seen it and experienced it in the press where young people die suddenly during sport, etc.

Speaker: But I tell you what, if you ever wonder what impact you're having, meeting parents of those that have lost their children.

Speaker: I mean, honestly, I don't know how to get out of bed in the morning.

Speaker: I mean, I just can't imagine it.

Speaker: And I think, you know, if anybody, you know, if anybody listening to this is wondering why they should donate to Live, Learn, Survive, then let me tell you, just meet somebody who's lost a child and you'll see how important the work that you guys do.

Speaker: in making sure that no, you know, or reducing the risk that any other parent will have to go through that.

Speaker: It is truly heartbreaking.

Speaker: But at the same time, and, you know, we do the same thing at the same time by taking action, by doing something, what we can do is hold our heads up in the sure and certain knowledge of what we are doing is we're reducing that risk.

Speaker: Yeah, absolutely.

Speaker: Absolutely.

Speaker: So well said.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: And so changing a little bit.

Speaker: Favourite comic relief challenge would be hard to pick.

Speaker: And I, you know, as an English born girl, but, you know, ended up the other side of the planet and been very invested in some of these people and these challenges over the years.

Speaker: Is what you know, what are the nice things?

Speaker: Did you have a favourite or is the one that stands out to you for a reason that we probably might not know?

Speaker: Well, it's a really interesting one.

Speaker: I mean, you know, I've done, as I said before, sort of 36 of them with some truly outstanding people.

Speaker: You know, they're giving up their time.

Speaker: And again, all you ever see is the end product.

Speaker: So you see the challenge itself.

Speaker: What you don't see is the months of training that went in before it.

Speaker: From a favourite perspective, I think generally it's always the solo challenges because they are properly brutal and there is a real desire from the celeb to actually complete it.

Speaker: um and some of those have been absolutely epic you know things like davina mccall when we did the the crazy triathlon from uh from edinburgh down to london and we swam across um lake windermere oh my goodness um it's the first time that the british press actually put a headline they said when will he

Speaker: which I quite like, you know, Joe Bishop and Joe Brand.

Speaker: But I think probably it goes back to the first challenge.

Speaker: And interestingly in Australia, you know, you will know this guy and that is David Williams.

Speaker: And the first challenge I ever did and that Sport Relief ever did was David Williams swaying the English Channel back in 2006 now, a long time ago.

Speaker: And I think what was really special about that was that it was the first one, obviously,

Speaker: But I think crucially, there was a word that was constantly, and I mean constantly, banded about around that challenge over two things.

Speaker: One was that could David Whalen swim across the English Channel?

Speaker: The classic word was impossible.

Speaker: that this cross-dressing comedian on Little Britain at the time, you know, he could never swim across it, number one.

Speaker: And then number two was, because again, nobody had ever done it before, you can't raise money for charity by doing a challenge like this.

Speaker: And this was at a time when nobody really did it.

Speaker: And of course, he became the first man in UK, first man to raise a million pounds on a single challenge.

Speaker: And of course, he got across the English Channel in one of the fastest times across the channel that year.

Speaker: So I think, you know, for me, it's probably my favourite for all sorts of reasons.

Speaker: And the fact that David's still a very close friend of mine now and a true legend in every sense of the word.

Speaker: Yeah, amazing.

Speaker: We watched part of that one today.

Speaker: So, yeah, incredible, incredible.

Speaker: Mate, back to more of a serious question.

Speaker: Drowning statistics.

Speaker: Why do you think education is so important?

Speaker: Well, in the UK, one person drowns every 20 hours.

Speaker: I mean, just think about that figure.

Speaker: We are much like Australia.

Speaker: We're an island nation.

Speaker: We've got 5,000 miles of coastline.

Speaker: We've got 4,000 miles of inland waterways.

Speaker: And yet so many people drown.

Speaker: You know, I mean, it is an absolute tragedy.

Speaker: And, you know, the real tragedy in that is that the vast majority of those are young people.

Speaker: And it sits within that group of eight to 18 year olds.

Speaker: and an awful and the vast majority of them.

Speaker: Yeah, same here, Greg.

Speaker: Same here.

Speaker: Yeah, there's a lot of testosterone, a lot of... And I think... I mean, lots of reasons for it, I think.

Speaker: But at the same time, you know, not all drownings are preventable, but many are.

Speaker: And I think that's why water safety... Learning to swim, number one, should be a life skill.

Speaker: And sadly, in the UK, we simply don't take it seriously enough.

Speaker: Or certainly governments don't take it seriously enough.

Speaker: And I think, secondly, it is about water safety.

Speaker: It's about understanding.

Speaker: To some extent, it's about respect.

Speaker: You need the respect.

Speaker: It's that looking at a body of water and thinking it could be dangerous.

Speaker: And what are those dangers?

Speaker: You know, for you guys on the beach, for us as well with beaches, you talk about Clacton, interestingly enough, is that...

Speaker: It's a notorious black spot around the pier because of the rip.

Speaker: Now, when you look at it on a clear sunny day in flat weather with no wind, you can't see the rip.

Speaker: You can't see any of those hidden dangers.

Speaker: And so therefore, what's absolutely crucial about that is that we educate people, particularly locals.

Speaker: Interestingly enough, many people who die on the shores of the UK are actually visitors to the shores.

Speaker: which is the same the world over.

Speaker: And again, that's why education is so important.

Speaker: But it's also about education of rivers and about flow of rivers, about temperature of water, about underwater hazards.

Speaker: When I swam the Thames, I mean, a great example of this is I swam the Thames and there is a notorious bridge not far from me, actually.

Speaker: I live close to the Thames.

Speaker: And this bridge, kids jump off in the summer.

Speaker: And I was swimming and we were coming past this bridge, a place called Songning, where a former prime minister lives, interestingly enough, who I was talking to about this after we'd done the swim.

Speaker: But I was coming up to the bridge and the crew stopped me and said, look, we've got to stop it, Greg, because there were kids jumping off the bridge, quite a narrow bridge.

Speaker: And they said, we don't want them to jump on top of that.

Speaker: So we're going to go around and stop them jumping off.

Speaker: This bridge is three metres high.

Speaker: When I swam underneath it, I was actually touching the bottom.

Speaker: So the water depth was less than half a metre.

Speaker: and they were jumping from three meters into the water.

Speaker: And that to me is, much of that is about education.

Speaker: It's also about us in the state taking responsibility and actually making it incredibly difficult to jump off that bridge by putting barriers up, by putting signs up.

Speaker: Sadly, what we have in life is that there's an awful lot of reactivity to it.

Speaker: When a tragedy occurs, then all of a sudden we all scurry around.

Speaker: That's when the news get involved, when it's reactive to the statistics.

Speaker: It's funny.

Speaker: Everyone's trying to achieve a common goal by getting the awareness out there, but unfortunately sometimes the people that the media focus on or interview or talk to are

Speaker: experts but experts for yeah i don't know like i don't know like i feel like me and lee we're like we're like the only um well i i wouldn't yeah bits and pieces uh going in our schools and stuff and it's not a competition about who does what but i think the common goal is is to get as much awareness out there as we can and

Speaker: try and get as much media and government support as we can as well.

Speaker: Now that we are a charity, now that we are a charity, it's our right.

Speaker: We need to get it out there.

Speaker: We need to be able to get as many people involved, not just here in Australia but around the world and touching base on how important just water safety is in general.

Speaker: It doesn't matter if it's on the coast, inland, waterways,

Speaker: It's very important for people to understand the hidden dangers, the hidden risks, things that people don't think about.

Speaker: And like you said, the depth could be submerged objects, could be sediment on the bottom, people get stuck.

Speaker: There's all sorts of different things that could happen.

Speaker: But I think a lot of people don't think that will happen to them.

Speaker: That's a problem.

Speaker: And more people drown in land in Australia than they actually do at the coast.

Speaker: Considering we all mainly live around the coast, there are actually more inland drownings than at the coast.

Speaker: Well, you know, and much of that is probably driven by the fact when you look at the sea and the break is big, you're not going to get in if you can't swim.

Speaker: Well, unless you're at one high, then you're definitely getting in.

Speaker: You're getting in anyway, whatever happens, yeah.

Speaker: But it is interesting.

Speaker: And I think some of those areas where we don't often look at, and that is ponds in the back garden and inflatable pools for the kids or having a swimming pool or even tragically leaving

Speaker: you know, kids in baths, it doesn't have to be, it doesn't have to be a big body of water with a tide or a rip or cold for drowning to occur.

Speaker: And I think, again, that message, you know, there's a continuum along which, and it's why specialists, you know, advising and reiterating.

Speaker: And on inland properties here, you know, your pool is fenced to everything, everything.

Speaker: And then, you know, 100 metres to the left is a huge dam.

Speaker: You know, it's like, and water is just like a magnet for kids.

Speaker: They love it.

Speaker: They absolutely are born to it.

Speaker: So, yeah.

Speaker: Well, our first, in our part to tackle all of this, Greg, April, no, not April, May is going to be Live, Learn, Survive's first charity challenge because I don't know if you've read that.

Speaker: So it was done in 2014.

Speaker: But the World Health Organization did a report dedicated solely to drowning.

Speaker: Purely to drowning.

Speaker: And point three, other than, you know, supervision of children and removing water, which is like, you know, pretty impossible.

Speaker: And then the third point of action was educate young children, school-aged children.

Speaker: That was the, you know, solution.

Speaker: And so basically the statistic of 42 people drown every hour of every day somewhere in the world.

Speaker: Our main challenge is going to be what's your 42?

Speaker: So my good friend here, that's where the 42 kilometers, sort of the marathon kind of thing.

Speaker: So Matthew, what's your 42?

Speaker: Yeah, so I'm not doing one, but two.

Speaker: I'm running on the first day of May.

Speaker: I'm running a marathon around Sydney to raise awareness for drowning prevention.

Speaker: And I'm also doing a marathon around Brisbane on the last weekend of May.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: So that's my 42.

Speaker: What's your 42, Leigh?

Speaker: I am throughout the month of May, I am going to be swimming 42 kilometres.

Speaker: And I haven't swam 42.

Speaker: Well, I did my five mile swim when I was like nine years old, Greg, you know, and that's like, that was the 70s.

Speaker: So I've not been as much of a swimmer, but I decided this was going to be my 42.

Speaker: So 28th of December, I hit the pool.

Speaker: I'm between 28th of December and where are we now?

Speaker: 20th of January.

Speaker: So I've done 17 K's.

Speaker: So I'm like, right, that's it.

Speaker: I'm putting my hand up now.

Speaker: Well, now I've told Greg, so I've got to be honest.

Speaker: So this is it.

Speaker: I am swimming 42Ks in May.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: So the whole point of it, Greg, is to just watch your 42.

Speaker: And obviously over the years, we want to keep doing these, build up enough momentum around the world and around Australia for people to get involved, to help donate towards our charity, to be able to get our books,

Speaker: Now, our programs in the schools and people part of the rescue squad to learn life skills.

Speaker: However, we want to each year hopefully bring it down to what's your 32, what's your 22?

Speaker: So hopefully over time we see the average drowning, not just here in Australia but around the world, come down.

Speaker: And that's something where we can get on a world scale people involved.

Speaker: And then maybe by the time I'm 80...

Speaker: um it'll be watch your two i might still be able to just do i might be able to just do the two cases you see we've got to set a goal that's the goal and it's not just an extra challenge either you know obviously not everyone can do physical challenges and we understand that so it could be you know uh 42 meditations it could be 42 push-ups it could be

Speaker: 42 yeah you know it could be 42 anything so we're going to try and get kids involved as well and if kids do you know what i think this is what what we want to do because a lot of this is getting the books into the schools because they've got the lessons in them and we want them in school libraries and um we've got um i think it's really nice that it say a child raises i don't know 50 that that child then

Speaker: gets five books for their school or whatever, $50 worth of books for their school, because then that child gets the absolute reward for their effort.

Speaker: They've given something to their school.

Speaker: And I think you just said it, you're most, you know, what you're so most proud of is your charity work.

Speaker: So if that child can think I did my hard work, got this for my school library, that's good for kids' self-esteem.

Speaker: And there's so much stuff around that's not good for self-esteem.

Speaker: kids' self-esteem.

Speaker: So, yeah, there's two of us here and then we're like, I don't know what we're going to do.

Speaker: I'm in.

Speaker: Listen, I'm in.

Speaker: So, Greg, can we have you as you're not putting me on the spot?

Speaker: Feel free to say no afterwards.

Speaker: Our unofficial UK ambassador.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: That's it.

Speaker: I'm just sitting there thinking what can I do?

Speaker: But, yeah, listen, I am in.

Speaker: Just say that one more time for me, Greg, one more time that you're in.

Speaker: I'm definitely... I just wanted to play the music.

Speaker: I just wanted to play the music.

Speaker: So now we've just got a few quick questions.

Speaker: We've grilled you enough, Greg.

Speaker: We'll give you some easier questions.

Speaker: Relax a little bit.

Speaker: So if you weren't in your chosen career, what would you do?

Speaker: An astronaut.

Speaker: Love to be an astronaut.

Speaker: I think we can see you there with Tim Peake, actually, having a chitter-chatter in space.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: That'd be good.

Speaker: Is it just looking down on the Earth or do you have an interest in astrophysics or, you know, the space or what's the – why astronaut?

Speaker: I think –

Speaker: multiple reasons.

Speaker: I think the idea of weightlessness and the impact of that, and we did some work, you know, did some research work a few years ago now on the impact on what's called baroreceptor response.

Speaker: So blood pressure control with weightlessness.

Speaker: I think just experiencing that would be incredible.

Speaker: I think the, imagine the night sky from, from the international space.

Speaker: Do you know what I mean?

Speaker: In terms of that stargazing and that sort of stuff.

Speaker: I think, you know, it's not, it's not my area, but I just think.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: We were just in the States.

Speaker: Didn't we have the best couple of hours in the Griffith Observatory?

Speaker: The LA Observatory.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: What a place.

Speaker: They had a telescope focused on the sun and we could see the sunspots and all this.

Speaker: It was amazing.

Speaker: Oh, amazing.

Speaker: Amazing.

Speaker: Okay.

Speaker: So go, Maxine.

Speaker: Mates, I've got to hear a book you love or your favourite book that you love, a book that you love.

Speaker: That you think everyone should read.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: You've been apart from mine.

Speaker: Obviously.

Speaker: You know what?

Speaker: You two.

Speaker: I want to ask Maxie's favourite book and he goes, do you want Maxie the Lifeguard 1, 2 or 3?

Speaker: I was like, seriously?

Speaker: Very predictable, boys.

Speaker: I give supply.

Speaker: I want to publish a book called Greg.

Speaker: Give it to us.

Speaker: If anyone wants to.

Speaker: Well, Achieve the Impossible.

Speaker: Achieve the Impossible is the one that sort of covers all the comet relief challenges and basically the way we structure much of what we chatted about today, actually.

Speaker: It's an interesting one when it comes to books.

Speaker: Do you know what?

Speaker: The Picture of Dorian Gray, I think, is, you know, I've sort of set myself a challenge a couple of years ago to read the classics.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: And I've read quite a few of them.

Speaker: The authors aren't alive now, but I can tell you some of them are hard going.

Speaker: But The Picture of Doreen Gray really is really quite an exceptional.

Speaker: Amazing.

Speaker: I'll have to check that out.

Speaker: That makes me sound a lot more intelligent than mine.

Speaker: Well, I'm impressed.

Speaker: I'm ready.

Speaker: I'm impressed.

Speaker: I'll be there.

Speaker: So we both love like a bit of a podcast podcast.

Speaker: Have you got a favourite podcast that you can share?

Speaker: Because we love getting a podcast here.

Speaker: Yours?

Speaker: Well, obviously.

Speaker: Your podcast.

Speaker: Don't pretend that you've ever listened to Audrey.

Speaker: Come on.

Speaker: I love it.

Speaker: Except this one.

Speaker: I always do.

Speaker: No, listen, I do.

Speaker: I do.

Speaker: No, listen, I love your podcast, guys.

Speaker: I think that, you know,

Speaker: Propulsion Swimming do a podcast, which is a great listen as well.

Speaker: And I think what I love about theirs is what I love about yours.

Speaker: And that is sort of the eclectic nature of it is that, you know, I'm not listening to the same thing repeated over and over again.

Speaker: It's different every time.

Speaker: And that's for me that the beauty of a podcast is actually the variety.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: My husband said it's like, well, one, he said, I listen to it because then I find out what's going on in life.

Speaker: And then he said that it's like sitting in a cafe with you.

Speaker: And that's what we want.

Speaker: Like, you know, we got, we know that like there's kids all over the world.

Speaker: And I say kids because to me, everyone's a kid, you know, younger people all over, you know, and it's like, we want them to feel like they're just catching up with a couple of mates.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: It's good fun.

Speaker: We enjoy doing it and we love talking to special guests like yourself.

Speaker: And we actually want to,

Speaker: focus a little bit more this year of getting more guests on to give the viewers or the listeners, I should say.

Speaker: The viewers, all the viewers out there.

Speaker: The listeners that listen in each week, you know, to give people like yourself some really good, strong information to be able to be better in life.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Mate.

Speaker: I could say there's a couple more questions here, but what we've spoken today is spot on.

Speaker: Absolutely.

Speaker: So this is a bit of a, I'm going to say a tough one, but, you know, a bit more of a reflection.

Speaker: What advice would you give to your 16-year-old self?

Speaker: It will be all right.

Speaker: Oh, I like that.

Speaker: It will be all right.

Speaker: Just don't worry about it.

Speaker: And I think it's interesting.

Speaker: It goes back to what we were saying earlier, but that focus on that focus, not necessarily on failure, but that focus on the things that we can't change.

Speaker: I think, you know what, just keep going.

Speaker: I had this conversation with a mate of mine the other day, and I said, you know what?

Speaker: And I have this conversation with my wife every day.

Speaker: She's like, what's going on?

Speaker: I said, don't worry about it.

Speaker: We'll get there in the end.

Speaker: And I think, honestly, the older you get, the more you realise, just it'll be all right.

Speaker: it will be all right.

Speaker: Just keep going and, you know, be, be the best that you can be.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: And, and you know what?

Speaker: Take, take every opportunity.

Speaker: Like we, we went to the States.

Speaker: We have no idea what we were doing, but we thought, you know what?

Speaker: We'll make some friends and it was epic.

Speaker: So, so yeah, absolutely.

Speaker: So from,

Speaker: I always say that, and I say that to kids, is that often, you know, people often talk about, you know, it's about opportunity.

Speaker: And actually, it's not about opportunity.

Speaker: It's about taking opportunity.

Speaker: And that's, you know, that's where it happens.

Speaker: That's where the magic happens, is by taking that.

Speaker: And you know what?

Speaker: Not every opportunity will work out.

Speaker: But that's all right.

Speaker: Because if you don't take it, you'll never know it's going to work out.

Speaker: And you create the opportunity as well.

Speaker: And when someone tells you no, we're big in like, when someone tells you no,

Speaker: I go, I don't know where I get this from or whatever.

Speaker: I go, no, it's a no from you.

Speaker: I'll try the next one.

Speaker: Cause I had four people tell me I would never live in Australia.

Speaker: Well, unless the planet change, I've been living in Australia for a few years, you know?

Speaker: And it was like, no, you don't think I've got it, what it takes to get there, but I'll find someone else.

Speaker: And one lady gave me the finest chink of life.

Speaker: And it was like, that's all I needed.

Speaker: I was like, right, we're going to run with that.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Run with that.

Speaker: Exactly.

Speaker: Perfect.

Speaker: So what does success look like to you then, Greg?

Speaker: That is very simple and it's happiness.

Speaker: Love that.

Speaker: Happiness, mate.

Speaker: Very well.

Speaker: That is all.

Speaker: That is the only success.

Speaker: The only success that matters.

Speaker: Happiness.

Speaker: I love it.

Speaker: Brilliant.

Speaker: And mate, that, yeah, there's nothing really more to say to that.

Speaker: That's awesome.

Speaker: Mate, there's two more to go.

Speaker: This is the last one.

Speaker: Then the last one Lee's going to say, but if you could be a first responder, what service would it be?

Speaker: Wow.

Speaker: That's a really tricky one.

Speaker: That is a really tricky one.

Speaker: Look, you can base your opinion just on the uniform, if you like, Greg, honestly.

Speaker: I could do that.

Speaker: Do you know, it would probably be ambient, I would think.

Speaker: I could see you.

Speaker: But I think, you know, first responders across the board are heroes.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: You know, there's absolutely no doubt about that because on a regular basis, they put themselves in danger to save others.

Speaker: And I think that, you know, whether it's the fire service, you know,

Speaker: whoever the first responder is, but I think probably just because of my background and where I've come from, I think the ambulance crews, and sadly in the UK they're here striking currently over paying conditions, but the job they do is second to none.

Speaker: And didn't the pandemic show us that the first responders were the new rock stars really?

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: weren't they?

Speaker: The frontline.

Speaker: Like I said, you know, Maxie, you know, you're on the frontline, you know, everyone's isolating, everyone's staying home, but you've got to go to work and you're facing the general public day in, day out, the people in the hospitals, the people basically keeping people safe.

Speaker: And, you know, that's really where, like we were in the pandemic,

Speaker: as everyone was, we created the rescue squad because we thought we're online.

Speaker: We don't know how long this is gonna last.

Speaker: This may be something that might inspire the next wave of first responders.

Speaker: And that's where the whole thing came from.

Speaker: And that's why we called it the rescue squad.

Speaker: And again, what I love about what you guys do is, I think the important thing is that young or old, doesn't matter how old you are, we can all be first responders.

Speaker: You know, if you just for some stats, a cardiac arrest in the general population, so outside of hospital, has got a survival rate of about 10%.

Speaker: Not much.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: It'd be about the same year.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Same here in Australia.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: And yet CPR.

Speaker: that basic life support, all the stuff that you guys talk about, the stuff that we all do for, you know, as part of being a lifeguard and now the RLSS here in the UK have set up what's called the National Lifeguard Academy, which is focused on young people.

Speaker: You know,

Speaker: Giving CPR, being a first responder right there can save someone's life.

Speaker: Whether it's post-drowning, whether it's dad on the beach who's had a cardiac arrest, or whether you're walking through the mall and grandma collapses.

Speaker: You know, we can all be first responders.

Speaker: We can all save a life.

Speaker: And I think that's the real thing.

Speaker: And that's why we've created the Rescue Squad, again, for people to learn these core skills or these life skills.

Speaker: They'll be able to help themselves and help others too.

Speaker: And, you know, you're not on the head.

Speaker: We've got a girl in the Rescue Squad who's just gone to St.

Speaker: Andrew's Uni doing medicine.

Speaker: And she had one of her first lecture lessons.

Speaker: And she was the only one in the class that you quote the...

Speaker: the correct terminology that knew the difference between, what was it?

Speaker: Basically, she's the only one in the class that knew the correct answer and a tutor said to her,

Speaker: That's excellent.

Speaker: How did you know that?

Speaker: And she said, Maxi's Rescue Squad.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: It's awesome, mate.

Speaker: But you know what?

Speaker: As a first responder, you know, I love what I do and I wouldn't change it as a lifeguard and a firefighter and being on the front line in and out of schools and around the world as well.

Speaker: Yeah, exactly.

Speaker: Mate, you've been amazing.

Speaker: Last question.

Speaker: The most important one, Greg.

Speaker: Oh my gosh.

Speaker: Can you give us your go-to song to add to our Max's Rescue Squad playlist?

Speaker: So the one song that you put on that, you know, when you've got to like make a withdrawal from the bank because it's been really tough, the one song that will change your mood.

Speaker: What fires you up, basically?

Speaker: What fires you up?

Speaker: God, it's plenty of them.

Speaker: Let's go with Hootie and the Blowfish.

Speaker: top time it's on uh correct review uh song number eight i even know where it is it's all right it's added added that is your song listen to it it's amazing in fact the whole that was amazing it is in there so it's on spotify maxi's rescue squad playlist

Speaker: the most eclectic bunch of songs, but everyone's like, you know, we got like, you know, kids in Germany telling us and like, you're like, oh, this is somebody new, you know, it's just this real bag of, but everyone's a good, you know, thumping anthem of,

Speaker: positivity.

Speaker: So, so no, it's been, yeah, amazing.

Speaker: Great choice.

Speaker: Great choice, mate.

Speaker: It's added to the squad now, but mate, before we say our final goodbyes, mate, just from me personally, it's been an absolute pleasure speaking to you, you know, from watching some of the amazing challenges you've done,

Speaker: over the last number of years.

Speaker: I won't say too many years because he's still young.

Speaker: He's still looked as good as ever, mate.

Speaker: But we do want to ask you one thing about Western Australia.

Speaker: Oh, yes.

Speaker: So before we – when I met you in Cabocham Lakes in April last year, we did say that we would love to catch up again one day.

Speaker: And I reckon if we can in a perfect world, I know you haven't because you said it's something that you want to do, is the Rotten S swim.

Speaker: Cottesloe to Rotten S swim, the Roto swim.

Speaker: Don't worry, mate.

Speaker: There's not that many things in grey suits, but...

Speaker: If there is ever an opportunity to do it as a charity team, I'd love to do it with you, mate.

Speaker: So the offer's on the table.

Speaker: Don't have to do it.

Speaker: I know we're busy people and we do bits and pieces, but I think over time it would be awesome to be able to maybe see if we can make that happen and Live and Survive will be the charity we can raise some awareness for.

Speaker: And we can do books.

Speaker: And you know what?

Speaker: We can do stuff for going to the UK schools and the Aussie schools and make it like a,

Speaker: You know, like a little big hug of education around the globe.

Speaker: Yeah, we'll see.

Speaker: But just get that in the back of your mind.

Speaker: I know you get a little bit of a thing in the back of your mind.

Speaker: Yeah, just put that if you've ever got a spare February and you think, what can I do now?

Speaker: Oh, Maxi, Roddo, let's go.

Speaker: 19.6.

Speaker: Let's do it.

Speaker: No, listen, man, I'm up for it.

Speaker: Do it as a duo.

Speaker: So, yeah, it'll be awesome to do it with you, mate.

Speaker: And I've done it.

Speaker: You can see the bottom the whole way.

Speaker: There's not that many sharks.

Speaker: There's only six people.

Speaker: It's a beautiful part of the world.

Speaker: Didn't you say to me, Greg, I think years ago when we very first emailed, you told me, have you got a mate in Perth and you'd always wanted to do rotto?

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: No.

Speaker: Yeah, yeah.

Speaker: So I actually took the family out.

Speaker: I was on a lecture tour at UWA.

Speaker: My mate is a prof there at UWA.

Speaker: And we actually stayed on Cotslow Beach.

Speaker: And we took a trip across the road on this island.

Speaker: I mean, it's a fabulous island.

Speaker: Yeah, it's one of those things I've always sort of... In my 50th year, I did 50 swims around the world.

Speaker: And it was probably the one that I wish I'd included.

Speaker: I just couldn't make it work.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: So just one condition, Greg, you've got to bring Ben, because I know that Ben and I have a great time on the boat while you two are swimming.

Speaker: Absolutely.

Speaker: You've got to bring Ben because he's your wingman, you know, and that's like, you know, so, so yeah, it's, it's, so plant that seed, you know, we've got to have a goal, Greg, we'll just plant that one on the, on the to-do list.

Speaker: Pleasure, mate.

Speaker: Good.

Speaker: And our 42 as well.

Speaker: 42.

Speaker: Just, yeah, let us know what you think.

Speaker: Put your think caps on, mate.

Speaker: And it would be awesome to have you involved as our UK ambassador.

Speaker: Yes.

Speaker: 100%, mate.

Speaker: Thank you.

Speaker: That's brilliant.

Speaker: Listen, thank you for having me on.

Speaker: It is an absolute pleasure.

Speaker: And I am properly a fan of everything you guys do.

Speaker: I think you're amazing.

Speaker: Keep it up.

Speaker: Thanks, mate.

Speaker: Thank you so much.

Speaker: We will end this and then we'll say our goodbyes.

Speaker: Yeah, mate, again, so great to see you and thank you for your time.

Speaker: We love you.

Speaker: You've been so generous with your time, Greg.

Speaker: Thanks so much.

Speaker: Absolute pleasure.