Transcript
Speaker: And we're back, baby, believe it or not.
Speaker: I'm walking on air.
Speaker: I never thought I could be so free.
Speaker: Flying away.
Speaker: You know that song?
Speaker: Classic.
Speaker: Absolute banger.
Speaker: Mate, the old fate for early 2000s.
Speaker: I need to give it a play.
Speaker: I forgot the name of the band, so it's a shit reference.
Speaker: But it was... Do you remember in primary school days in particular...
Speaker: you would do your like monthly or termly concerts and like everyone would be invited to school at like 5.30 and you would like everyone would bring like their best flaming shirts or their best bloody mambo shirts and then you would do like an hour of dancing but my school didn't let boys and girls touch each other so you couldn't yeah anyway so that was one of the bangers there and a little bit of backstreet boys but yeah so good to be back my brother how have you been buddy
Speaker: I've been good.
Speaker: I've been good.
Speaker: I mean, I've been, there's another song that goes, been dancing on my own.
Speaker: Is that a good way to put it?
Speaker: Been dancing on my own?
Speaker: For your current state of affairs?
Speaker: That's it.
Speaker: It is, well, I mean, if we want to get into that, I've got a whole can of worm if we can get into that.
Speaker: Look, let's just say, when I say I've been dancing with myself, it's been kind of like dancing with myself.
Speaker: And then, you know, hey, and then sneaking in.
Speaker: You never know.
Speaker: Before the, you know, getting our beaks wet again, because we really haven't even chatted between us for a while.
Speaker: Like, we've both been pretty busy and been doing the damn thing.
Speaker: You came up and visited Coffs Harbour just before Christmas.
Speaker: But...
Speaker: We're talking about sort of a good little focus again for the both of us on training and getting like some good systems put in place where we're kind of tracking, you know, the workouts and, you know, upper body splits generally, upper and the lower, but also focusing on, you know,
Speaker: you know, strength and hypertrophy, which has been really fascinating.
Speaker: And I've just noticed that like they're not too, they're not mutually exclusive, right?
Speaker: Like as you start to train in a way where you want to build muscle, for example, you're, you know, you're going about 70% to the 10 to 12 rep mark.
Speaker: You do get stronger as well.
Speaker: So when you do go for like your heavy sets or maybe your heavy days, when you're looking, you know, only for a couple of reps, your weight increases.
Speaker: So it's not like you train for muscle and you don't get stronger too.
Speaker: Like I find that really fascinating.
Speaker: And the same with conditioning as well.
Speaker: Like if you ever do like a drop set or if you do like a high rep set on maybe three to four max weight, like if you are in training strong for your bench press, for example, like you can do 20, 25 reps on that light stuff, kiddie stuff, easy days.
Speaker: So I feel like that correlates well with life as well.
Speaker: It really does.
Speaker: It really does.
Speaker: And it's, you know, at the end of the day, you got to mix it up and, you know, switch it up and keep coming back for that biscuit.
Speaker: You know, the thing is, I find that I always get a little bored and a little demotivated after a while.
Speaker: So I always feel like I need to switch up something, you know, switch up.
Speaker: So it gives me something new challenge.
Speaker: Really.
Speaker: I mean, you could do the, keep doing the same basics for the rest of your life and you'll be in great shape and there's no denying it.
Speaker: But, you know, I think there gets to a point where your muscle even stops, like, you know, hit a plateau because that your muscles know exactly what to do, how to do it.
Speaker: Your brain knows exactly what to do and how to do it and how to do it most effectively without wasting energy.
Speaker: And, you know,
Speaker: causing any damage to the microfibers of the muscle that you need to you know grow so that's why i think always mixing up your training it's always kind of good for both mentally and i feel like i need i need that to keep my habits going as well like i for most things in life like if i don't give that little bit of variety to myself then i tend to um you know motivation goes away pretty quick like generally there's like a baseline motivation of like why you want to do it
Speaker: But the habit starts to get less and less important for me.
Speaker: Yeah, if I'm training constant, I think that's because we've been training for long enough now where it's sort of nothing's overly new.
Speaker: I still love like one of my favourite things is getting, seeing a new exercise or an exercise we haven't done for a long time and for some reason I discarded.
Speaker: And then doing it and then kind of learning it again and feeling like a bit of a rookie like that.
Speaker: I feel like that's a mad feeling and that's one really clever way.
Speaker: Even introducing like a split squat into my leg day like made me excited for leg day again.
Speaker: You know what I mean?
Speaker: I used to never do those.
Speaker: So I feel like that's a good little trick to do the same sort of thing to keep yourself going, I guess.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah, for sure.
Speaker: At the end of the day, I actually did something similar.
Speaker: I was like, oh, you know, before the lockdown, I was, I, one of my goals were for last goals were for last years was to become, fitness goals, I should say, was to become really good at my pull-ups.
Speaker: And before the lockdown, initial lockdown hit in Sydney, I was like, I was, I was like doing like 10 reps, 20 kilo plate push of pull-ups, right?
Speaker: And that was the strongest pull-up.
Speaker: And like, if anyone's ever done pull-ups, you know that those damn things are hard.
Speaker: I was to be able to do 20 kilos.
Speaker: I was pretty impressed.
Speaker: And then lockdown hit.
Speaker: I just totally disregarded it.
Speaker: I was like, forget about pull-ups.
Speaker: Who needs pull-ups anyway?
Speaker: It's not like I'm going to be hanging off the bridge.
Speaker: So I disregarded those.
Speaker: And I just went back to them.
Speaker: Yeah, I went back to them the other day.
Speaker: I was like, oh, like, I forgot these were good.
Speaker: Like, you know, it was good.
Speaker: I was like, oh, I'm so shit at these.
Speaker: Let me...
Speaker: Let's get back up on this again.
Speaker: So it's always nice to have that, you know, little push.
Speaker: You know what?
Speaker: I'll tell you what it's like.
Speaker: You know, remember those merry-go-round rides, right?
Speaker: Back in the days, you know, when you jump off it and you spin it around and you spin it around and you jump on it.
Speaker: Yeah, yep.
Speaker: Yep, yep.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah, those spinny rides.
Speaker: So it's like, you know, when you first push it, you have to kind of run around it, run around it.
Speaker: And then after that, once you're going, you know, you're on the go, you kind of just quickly step off, just do a little push here and there and then keep moving.
Speaker: I think that's what it's training is like, you know, sometimes you need to put your foot off the wheel and, you know, just give a little nudge and a push and then you keep the ball rolling.
Speaker: Otherwise, you know,
Speaker: Otherwise, it'll stop on your own.
Speaker: And you remember what it's like, your body and your brain and everything remembers what it was like to be back there.
Speaker: And, you know, particularly with COVID, sometimes you put the weight plate on your own belly without even realizing, so you don't need the plate.
Speaker: Or, you know, maybe I've gone back to, because of my shoulder injury, I'm not quite as strong as I used to be, but I've gone back to doing the assisted pull-ups on the platform.
Speaker: I've really just been focusing on getting that full stretch and like that good control through the pull-up.
Speaker: And it's definitely when I do my free weight ones, like I definitely am getting back to where I was before.
Speaker: But yeah, it's such a – I feel like it's probably the most difficulty, even like a really heavy squat.
Speaker: I can get pretty close to what my max was even if I don't do it for a long time.
Speaker: But like pull-ups just, they disappear so quickly.
Speaker: Like that body weight stuff, the old faithful push-ups, like go so fast.
Speaker: I'll tell you what really goes for three things I've noticed pull ups, deadlifts, and bench press goes like, you know, goes quicker than, you know, my good mates.
Speaker: I think with pull ups, if you, sorry, with deadlifts, if you can, part of that initial lift, that's sometimes the hardest bit.
Speaker: I think you can sometimes remember that you need to push through that so you can still do a decent weight, but,
Speaker: you feel like your back is just going to cave in and your hands, like I lose my grip strength really fast and yeah, it's just a nightmare.
Speaker: I'll tell you what it is.
Speaker: Maybe it's different for me because I work a desk job, right?
Speaker: If I stop deadlifting, which at the moment I'm willing to admit that I'm, you know, I'm neglecting them.
Speaker: And because it's a loop, right?
Speaker: It's a cycle.
Speaker: What happens is like sitting down deteriorates your back like nothing else in this world.
Speaker: I mean, sure, we all know humans aren't designed to sit for fucking eight hours a day, but, you know, we do it anyway.
Speaker: But, you know, it really does.
Speaker: And then over the years, I've just noticed my back deteriorate and deteriorate.
Speaker: I mean, there was a time and younger days as well.
Speaker: And my muscles weren't immature.
Speaker: I was like deadlifting 165, 180.
Speaker: That's why my back is fucked.
Speaker: But, you know, I
Speaker: I think there's a solid aspect of it.
Speaker: It just deteriorates the muscles of my lower back from just sitting down.
Speaker: The last two weeks, my supervisor was on annual leave.
Speaker: So I was spending like a lot more time driving on course than I normally do.
Speaker: So I did like 30 plus hours, both weeks of driving and sitting in that position.
Speaker: And we'd stand up and sit back down and serve people and talk to people, whatever else.
Speaker: But like that constant being in that seated, shortened position, like because I haven't been in a desk for about three years, like my knee pain started to come back.
Speaker: Like my hips are really tight.
Speaker: I was stretching them this morning like I'd lost weight.
Speaker: I've been doing like this mobility routine with my hips and I sort of regressed a little bit.
Speaker: I'm like, yeah, this shit is like, you know, when they say that sitting is the new smoking, like there's some real truth to that.
Speaker: Like, you know, I'm pretty sure you're not breathing bloody rat poison, but, you know, you feel a bit unhealthy.
Speaker: Like it makes you feel like you're aging.
Speaker: It feels like it ages you.
Speaker: I think that's what I'm noticing.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Oh, it really does.
Speaker: And I'll tell you what's really interesting, actually.
Speaker: When I came up to Kofs Harbor, right, my back was like, I actually did a DJ gig, right?
Speaker: And the table that they gave me was a piece of shit table, right?
Speaker: It was really... I spent like four hours bending over my desk turntables, right?
Speaker: Anyway, so I didn't notice that.
Speaker: And then I went on and then pushed ahead with my deadlifts and then went to work and sat down for eight hours after that, drove for another five hours.
Speaker: The next day, my back was, you know, there was a few other things in there as well.
Speaker: The next day, my back was just dead.
Speaker: And you remember because you helped me stretch and stuff.
Speaker: And then that almost took...
Speaker: And actually, I'm kind of surprised.
Speaker: I actually thought that I kind of accepted my faith.
Speaker: I was like, this is going to go on for the rest of my life.
Speaker: And I'm going to be one of those people with chronical pain.
Speaker: And it took about two weeks.
Speaker: And I went to this Thai specialty massage place.
Speaker: When I say specialty, I mean like they were like medical specialists.
Speaker: I know people will be jumping the gun.
Speaker: You know, there's some specialties there.
Speaker: But I'm talking about like a physio, one of those physios type people.
Speaker: And, you know, this dude freaking ripped into my back.
Speaker: I woke up.
Speaker: I was in more pain than ever before.
Speaker: And then, yeah, my low back, I was in more pain than ever before.
Speaker: I went to bed.
Speaker: The next morning I woke up.
Speaker: I was like, oh, holy shit.
Speaker: Ever since then, my back's actually been way better.
Speaker: I don't know what changed.
Speaker: Like, obviously, when you're sitting like that, like your hip flexors are in a shortened position.
Speaker: and then your lower back is in like an extended lengthened position.
Speaker: And because you are in those positions for a period of time, I think your body just has to compensate by like allotting its resources to the surrounding muscles.
Speaker: And so...
Speaker: If you can get someone to push into, like they're normally a really good massage or some remedial massage or a sports massage and release that muscle, it'll start to lengthen and shorten again really well instead of just being in that contracted position.
Speaker: It's almost like you get a short ball on cricket and you're like really tense and you're sort of blocking and you get used to it.
Speaker: Or it's like you get a couple of drives out of the off stumps and you start to free your hands up and you start moving really well again and you're not always shortened like that.
Speaker: I think it's actually the body's way of preparing itself for that situation being bunkered up.
Speaker: But you obviously spend too long like that and then everything gets all clamped and tight.
Speaker: Like I've been a little bit lapsed on my massages.
Speaker: I was doing it monthly for so long and I actually have one on Thursday I'm really excited for.
Speaker: But, yeah, I think that's like if you're exercising, particularly, yeah, if you do something like that where you find yourself in that sort of pain, like a good massage, there's really not much better, you know, and then it,
Speaker: Oh, for sure.
Speaker: I mean...
Speaker: A while ago, I used to get a massage before COVID hit because I was training a lot at that before because I was doing MMA and then still training weightlifting.
Speaker: I'll tell you what though, MMA with some jiu-jitsu and some weightlifting, that's a deadly combination.
Speaker: Not for your body only, but because you still have that raw strength that other people, even though their technique maybe excels yours at times.
Speaker: So good, eh?
Speaker: That raw strength though.
Speaker: um so it's pretty good and uh um and i was training a lot and like i was finding like i was having like a lot i was like always in some sort of pain not necessarily like bad kind of a lot of guys don't like to lift weights as well so once you get a bit of foundational technique like your strength really starts to starts to do really well but yeah sorry continue that's so true
Speaker: Yeah, yeah.
Speaker: And that's what I found.
Speaker: I was like, at first, like, I was getting beat up every single day.
Speaker: And then eventually I started, like, picking up some technique.
Speaker: And then especially with, like, my game was super weak.
Speaker: Like, I could kind of protect myself on, like, once we were, like, down.
Speaker: Even though I'd get choked out eventually.
Speaker: But it was more so, like, with MMA, like, how long I could stand on my feet.
Speaker: because like before they I got taken down or I took like you know hit the ground eventually so my standing game was pretty weak unless until like it became good I like realized like training a lot of legs and stuff it was becoming harder for people to actually take you down like even if they use a good technique sometimes raw strength was just like yeah like technique sometimes literally wasn't enough against like a single or double leg like you're relying on a hinge moment and
Speaker: So you're relying on strong glutes, strong hamstrings to help keep you up.
Speaker: And so, yeah, if you're deadlifting, if you're doing leg curls like you're doing those movements, then it takes them a bit longer because you're able to meet their force.
Speaker: And that's super translatable.
Speaker: It's like literally that movement that you're doing to shoot your hips away from a takedown is literally what you do if you're doing an RDO or something like that.
Speaker: So, yeah, that's where it's like...
Speaker: I feel like some of these guys that I like destroy me as well, like some of these guys that have got great technique, but like if they lifted just a little bit, they have no idea.
Speaker: But honestly, I felt like when I was doing that, I felt like there's a few exercises that made a huge difference.
Speaker: Deadlift squats, bench press made the huge biggest difference for me.
Speaker: And I actually started doing a bit of, because I realized one of my biggest problems was I would always get tired keeping my hands up.
Speaker: like my hands would eventually drop.
Speaker: So I doubled on my side lateral raises.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And then those motherfuckers wouldn't even go down instinctively.
Speaker: So, you know, it's side lateral raise because those are the muscles, you're keeping them up.
Speaker: And like, if you can actually, you know, up that and then kind of,
Speaker: That became pretty brilliant.
Speaker: But anyway, like the moral story was I was getting like, I was like always in some sort of pain, whether it was like, whether some dude cut into my neck with his nail or like, you know, muscle soreness itself.
Speaker: So I started getting like cupping, cupping done at the time and like some dry needling and some massage.
Speaker: Like that was a game changer.
Speaker: Like to be able to maintain such like six days of pretty much training and, you know, still be able to work full time and stuff.
Speaker: So that was pretty insane.
Speaker: Probably not realistic for a long time, but had to come to an end at some point.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I feel like sometimes you can double down and, you know, sacrifice social life or when it's time everyone's working and, you know, take a few months to do a couple of things, do some skill acquisition with a martial art, lift some weights, and then, yeah, you start...
Speaker: Life gets in the way, but if you can capitalize on three or four months of the year doing that, I feel like you give yourself a good chance of coming back to it later in life.
Speaker: I'm going through that a little bit with golf at the moment too, where I've not been playing very much, but I'm starting to really feel like I want to play again.
Speaker: For a period of time, I was not liking playing.
Speaker: That's actually why I stopped also at a time constraint feeding too and not being able to practice.
Speaker: um so that's the beautiful thing about like acquiring skill like that you can come back to it later on in life and you know i'm a little bit more mature now so i'll be a little bit smarter with my practice and a little bit more cerebral instead of just trying to hit the damn thing like i'll actually be um you know listening to advice that i get and and um you know watching those youtube videos again that's one of my favorite things about training is just going down the youtube rabbit hole you know staying away from the vaccines and
Speaker: staying away from Uncle Joe Rogan.
Speaker: No, I never stay away from Uncle Joe.
Speaker: He's the best.
Speaker: But staying away from that shit and then just spending four hours on frigging knee pain, it's like, fuck yeah, this is good.
Speaker: This is adulting.
Speaker: It really is.
Speaker: And it's like, you know, and I think you said what you said there is you actually put it.
Speaker: I think that's exactly kind of what I wanted to say.
Speaker: And then I think that could be the good.
Speaker: That's a kind of a good point as well.
Speaker: It's easier to like get back to the things that you've actually started.
Speaker: I don't like, you know, it's same thing with like, it's always on back of my head to like whenever I see, because, you know, I've never literally taken out my gloves out of my gym bag.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And it's always there, just always just in my head or back of my head.
Speaker: It was like, I got to get back into it.
Speaker: I got to get back into it.
Speaker: You know, and I haven't actioned it yet, which is pretty poor effort on my behalf.
Speaker: But in saying that, I know for sure, you know, sometimes this year I'll probably, you know, end up going because I put that in my list to do as well.
Speaker: And the only reason I put it in my list to do because it was in my scope of things that I've already done
Speaker: And, you know, same thing goes.
Speaker: And, like, the next time you do it, you become smarter because you're wiser and stuff.
Speaker: Same thing with me.
Speaker: You know, the first time I was doing it, I was just like, fucking, you know, just doesn't, I don't, I just want to win.
Speaker: I sort of beat up guys.
Speaker: The first time you do something, the hardest part, as I say, is starting.
Speaker: And when you do something again, it's not as hard, but it's still definitely, like,
Speaker: mentally a challenge to restart something, you know what I mean?
Speaker: Particularly because you know you have to be humbled a little bit because, you know, you would have regressed a little bit or you need, you know, you forget what that feeling feels like of someone being able to have their way with you, you know what I mean?
Speaker: But it's like, it's a good feeling to come back to a like, ah, this is a bit of familiarity in this.
Speaker: If you get a good gym, like there's the bros, you know, there's a good broness to it, I think as well.
Speaker: Or a female broness, you know, whatever, whatever.
Speaker: I'll tell you what though.
Speaker: When you talk about when someone has their way with you, I'm not even talking about the dudes that throw you around like a ragdoll.
Speaker: I'm talking about the trainer who makes you, does 3,000 kilometers of runs before you even start training.
Speaker: Yeah, like skipping five, 10 minutes of skipping.
Speaker: It's that sort of shit, like heaps of hip escapes or like...
Speaker: I used to train at Gracie Baja in Sydney and they would do like a 20-minute warm-up before they started doing any technique, which is really good because you got nimble and warm and stuff.
Speaker: But like it would cook you, bro.
Speaker: You'd be dead.
Speaker: And you're like, now I've got to roll these savages for an hour and I've got to try to –
Speaker: remember what I'm doing put my hands here and my foot there and I'm like I can barely breathe bro I totally agree with you because they would I remember so because at the absolute MMA the one that I used to train in so they used to do like a 30 minute warm-up right which was and then 30 minute warm-up was pretty much its own class right like some people just go away after the class right like a lot more like um
Speaker: A lot more normal people would join it, like people who weren't doing the classes after as well.
Speaker: They just join in, come in for quick workout as well.
Speaker: So it was pretty much a full workout.
Speaker: And what I remember was the worst thing that I hated the most was doing bear goals.
Speaker: Those bastards are the worst.
Speaker: You've got to keep your butt down.
Speaker: You've got to actually drive your knees forward.
Speaker: You can't just like walk on your hands.
Speaker: You've got to actually crawl like, oh my gosh.
Speaker: yeah it crawled and then you got crawled that and the worst part was like we had like this big ring and then they just make you do the whole ring and then after that you'd be done they'd be like all right uh will barrels with your partner yeah yeah and then it's like bro i got nothing yeah after doing like 50 push-ups i got nothing
Speaker: yeah and then then i feel like keep your hands up exactly it's actually such a such a like i don't do burpees anymore because i hate them but i feel like bear crawls is something i need to start doing more of again because you you work the whole body and you work the whole body in in a position that makes you so strong so quickly because you're carrying your weight your legs your shoulders your core like keep your core braced that help like it's such a good exercise i like this
Speaker: So there's a couple of those exercises that like, like a deadlift that you're just using your whole body together.
Speaker: And you just, once you start doing them again, like that's really hard.
Speaker: You start doing them for a few weeks and you get better.
Speaker: And you're like, this is, I feel strong as doing these ones.
Speaker: I'll tell you, if you want to punish your class next time when you have him, this is what you can do.
Speaker: You can make them do the bear crawls, make them do about three to four sets of like normal and then make them do reverse.
Speaker: Reverse and then follow it up with a wheelbarrow with a partner back and forth about five times.
Speaker: That'll be it.
Speaker: Before they all drop.
Speaker: It's good because you get some whinging, but then people get too tired to whinge.
Speaker: So those are the best classes.
Speaker: that's what my that's what my chinese said it too yeah yeah yeah and they just keep going uh good days interesting interestingly enough like just talking about that when you were saying like you know when you focus on things like that you know you go down a rabbit hole of the good things right like it's like the whole idea about there's this uh old saying about your think of your brain is like a garden right like you're
Speaker: brains like garden like some shit's gonna grow in there right and it just depends on what you're gonna grow like you know with if you don't think of your garden like if you don't do anything to it weeds are just gonna grow like something's gonna grow because that's how the nature of the brain you know our brains tend to be focused towards the negative that's why whenever you see like you know
Speaker: there's a crash on the highway you just see you know the crash is clear like the traffic is still slow you go why the hell the traffic slow it's because everyone is slowing down to look at the freaking accident that's why everyone just thinks about the negative and looks at the negative right because our brains are wired like that that's why that's why those uh you know market those uh news companies make such freaking great money because they just keep jerking out those freaking horrible articles
Speaker: which trump said this or you know the new vaccine mandate what you know so you're just like yeah i need to read out you know sydney escape sydney it says the new new normal for what
Speaker: what is this bullshit so i realized like you know um this year i've almost consumed like one of the things i said to myself was like i'm not gonna consume absolutely no news and i have done like absolutely no like the worst thing the worst thing i do at the moment is not even not even on facebook because i know facebook is worse like i've pretty much stopped using facebook for like facebook scroll feed i only log on to twitter because i i have like two followers on twitter and no one really cares about twitter i don't i don't care about twitter that much
Speaker: And I'll just check the numbers of COVID sometimes.
Speaker: And then that seems to work because they post that little picture.
Speaker: So I'm like, that's fine.
Speaker: And then, but what I realized was like, you know, you keep scrolling, but you're still going to consume something.
Speaker: So I've been listening to a lot more like, you know, stuff about like workouts or like, you know, audio books are more or less because it's
Speaker: still got to entertain yourself.
Speaker: Just got to do that.
Speaker: And, you know, the other day, like, because I stopped, like, I took a heavy turn left from, like, social media, how I was using my, like, because I was like, oh, I'm spending a lot of time on TikTok and Instagram as well.
Speaker: Big time.
Speaker: And you get caught up on those thirst traps as well.
Speaker: So,
Speaker: I was like, I can't do that.
Speaker: And then I started taking up a lot more reading medium.
Speaker: That's why I use a lot more medium at the moment, which is a great app.
Speaker: You can just read quick little articles here and there.
Speaker: And even they can become an addiction every now and then because I just keep saving articles that I don't even read.
Speaker: But I found, you know, Reddit is another one that I thought was going to be good.
Speaker: But that was like a whole other rabbit hole because it was just like non-stop threats.
Speaker: A good curated Reddit thread can be really good.
Speaker: But because there's so much user input, like it just gets messy so fast.
Speaker: But you can get a really, it's like a good, even some Twitter feeds would get really good.
Speaker: But it's just too much variability.
Speaker: It's too much just chaos.
Speaker: Too much, too much.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I found the best app that if you want to tickle your social media fancy is Medium.
Speaker: Medium is like literally, it's like an Instagram for articles.
Speaker: The articles are no longer than like, you know, maybe two minute read or three minute read, most articles.
Speaker: But, you know, you can just quickly go through it, like, you know, at lunch break and stuff.
Speaker: I started doing less and less as well, like with Instagram.
Speaker: Particularly, like, because I haven't used TikTok, but, you know, you see YouTube shorts and you see Instagram.
Speaker: If you go for an Instagram story feed, it's basically, you know, kind of like TikTok.
Speaker: So, I was doing a lot of that for sure.
Speaker: And...
Speaker: even it took a week or two but by that time I was um just accessing the app a lot less and every time sometimes I would open the app for no reason then I would close it straight away just be like don't even give myself half an excuse and it meant it started to really work and now I'm at the point now where I like I start just going oh to look for a news feed now I can't even be bothered like it seems like too much effort where it used to be like I do it without even thinking so it's sort of like um it's kind of come full circle a little bit but that's a really good um that's a really good um
Speaker: Really good idea.
Speaker: I'm actually going to download Medium.
Speaker: I've heard a little bit about it.
Speaker: I've been using like for the last bit of a year, I've been using an app called YouBible and that's just the Bible on the phone.
Speaker: It's got heaps of different translations and there's also these things called daily devotionals.
Speaker: So you can have a topic or a certain basically kind of anything you want to learn about and you can have
Speaker: So an expert in the field, so a pastor or something like that, will explain it for a few minutes and then they'll give you Bible verses to sort of reference that.
Speaker: So those have been really good.
Speaker: That sort of feel like those things collectively have helped sort of curb my quench, you know, my need for constant story feeds and everything like that.
Speaker: But you start getting bored again.
Speaker: It's weird.
Speaker: It's like a trap.
Speaker: You just want to full circle it again.
Speaker: Oh, yeah, 100%.
Speaker: I totally get that.
Speaker: I found one thing you can do, you can always just unfollow the people who like show up and then you just, you only find like just zooming in, tuning in, you know, all to be short.
Speaker: Because you, obviously, the more you follow someone, the more your stuff.
Speaker: If you unfollow them and then follow them straight away, does that reset it or does it go back to just do it?
Speaker: Nah, it doesn't.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Nah, it's... The algorithms are pretty good.
Speaker: Like, sometimes you can even unfollow them, it'll still show you based on, like, your reference...
Speaker: I really cut down my followings too.
Speaker: I've been doing this for a few years.
Speaker: I think I've been unfollowing girls, particularly that I followed just because they used to be hot when I was younger.
Speaker: And then I had all these fitness influencers that I just followed because they were hot back in the days.
Speaker: I'm not saying they're not hot now, but that's what my brain worked like at the time, clearly.
Speaker: So I was like...
Speaker: these these like there's no value in this particular content for me is for them to like follow like i think my feed my feed mostly like if you scroll through it like now is actually just my friends uh like actually my friends like posting stuff um or like few actual influencers that i kind of give a shit about like you know folks um and and like
Speaker: Like if you ever need your outlet, then you can always go find it.
Speaker: But yeah, when you curate a lot out of it and then you, yeah, you even stick to one or two industries, for example, that you know are being more beneficial than less beneficial or just like your friendship circle, you just decrease those followers.
Speaker: You start to see the same people, but it's like, yeah, those are the ones I want to see.
Speaker: So it's not that hard to do.
Speaker: You just sort of got to be a little bit ruthless with it.
Speaker: You sort of,
Speaker: You can go, oh, you know, sort of like she's very beautiful, but she also has like good workouts.
Speaker: It's like, nah, gone.
Speaker: Like you've got to be a little bit rude.
Speaker: You know, you've got to be a little bit brutal.
Speaker: But it actually does definitely, yeah, you can't just, it's like anything.
Speaker: You can't just stop.
Speaker: You've got to cut back before you stop there.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I'll tell you what, though.
Speaker: I do still follow it and I get trapped in it so badly.
Speaker: Oh, yeah.
Speaker: Which is the solid anti-maxxism.
Speaker: Goddamn.
Speaker: I love reading their content because it's just... It's... No, because it's just... Sometimes...
Speaker: Sometimes what they say makes sense.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And it's usually both.
Speaker: Sometimes it's just funny because it's so, so cerebral, what's that word?
Speaker: What's the word when you are kind of only intake the content that is confirmation bias?
Speaker: That's what it's called.
Speaker: so it's so like so biased like the code the research you'll find like they'll cut they'll cut out like a piece of content that joe rogan said on his podcast right uh and then they'll position it in a way it's just like pretty much enforces what they're saying so it's pretty interesting i mean i i at this point i that's an argument that i'm not even willing to give any energy to yeah and yeah definitely still
Speaker: pretty quickly and even if you're pretty neutral to it you will start to feel a certain way so i become pretty hyper vigilant to when i start to feel emotional but um like the one thing i noticed and it's happened with a few people i used to listen to steven crowd i don't do so much anymore because it's just i don't want to be um you know i don't want to be involved with any sort of politics anymore i'm just not interested at the moment but like
Speaker: I would see things about and like the big sort of the popular thing at the moment is obviously because Rogan's on Spotify now and he's the biggest media outlet in the world is to devalue his opinions or, you know, paint a narrative about him and then people who aren't sure or don't know about him or have heard about him or not listened to him or.
Speaker: I feel like the people that don't like him, they'll listen to it and they'll just have that confirmation bias radar turned up and you'll hear what you want to hear and how you want to hear it.
Speaker: But I feel like a lot of people will tune in because they go, I want to see what the hell's going on.
Speaker: And you hear him talk for a couple of minutes and you're like, dude, I actually really like this guy.
Speaker: Like he's like a, like he sounds like a friend that I know or something.
Speaker: And then,
Speaker: he's just getting more and more popular with that like the numbers are getting higher and higher and it's sort of backfiring because because you can see it from even from a year or two ago when you know like say a Fox or a Guardian had two or three million people listening and there was maybe four or five or six million in Rogan now some now it's up to about
Speaker: two or three times that now Rogan's getting 10 to 15 million and they're getting 500,000 a million subscribers or listeners or watchers or viewers particularly in the US but um so it's it's obviously not working but it's it's it's very fascinating so with all the craziness going on a lot more people you know without using the w word the wake up word a lot more people are starting to either formulate their opinion or us just um
Speaker: tend to be siding with as much common sense as they feel like they need to.
Speaker: So I like that a lot.
Speaker: Yeah, I mean, I think in the last year, it's funny because if you were to listen to the episodes, us just talking even 12 months ago to maybe a year and a half ago, which is really interesting because let's say you listen to the episode, you listen to the episode maybe, you know, I don't know, 2020, right?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: literally yeah super like you know and then this is funny enough like someone was talking to me they're like oh each week i talk to you have like some new you're like you're like a whole nother person you have like a new ideology like hell yeah like yeah imagine if i didn't like you know i'd be stupid i don't want to be the same like you know um
Speaker: You know, I think the fundamental is the fundamentals and your values remain the same.
Speaker: Like I've very much, especially in the past three months that we haven't done any podcasting, I've become very, very, very much like much of like, I realized that
Speaker: How much attention I was giving to the politics of the world was more than I needed to do, more than my fair share.
Speaker: I don't think it made a difference to anything.
Speaker: I just complained.
Speaker: So it was just wasted energy.
Speaker: So I just stopped.
Speaker: I think that's kind of my new standing on that.
Speaker: So I'm just like...
Speaker: I think there's far more important things that we can do to make a difference than to just complain and whinge about it.
Speaker: I think a conversation is always good.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: But complaining and whinging is probably non-helpful.
Speaker: Totally.
Speaker: I think looking at our mindset, which is always since we really met each other, it's about improvement and constantly bettering ourselves.
Speaker: There's regression and progression as well.
Speaker: There's going to be seasons.
Speaker: There's going to be times that...
Speaker: you take a step back and maybe you feel like you're doing stuff that you felt like you've moved on from and, you know, you sort of move back through that and then you go away from it again.
Speaker: But I feel like each time that happens, you sort of come out of it with a little bit of a, it's almost like a little bit of a clearness and a clarity to it.
Speaker: And as you mature as well, like you just get,
Speaker: You get to see things for what they really are or you get less stuck in certain patterns.
Speaker: And, yeah, so I'm definitely noticing that with myself.
Speaker: It's just now it's getting easier and easier because I'm focused on improving.
Speaker: Like it's never an upward trend.
Speaker: It's like that heartbeat up and down, up and down, up and down, but it's averaging across the board.
Speaker: And now I can't even justify like going down the political rabbit hole anymore because it doesn't do anything for me.
Speaker: So, and that's like really, that's cool.
Speaker: I feel myself maturing a lot, you know, a lot more karma and stuff.
Speaker: Oh, for sure.
Speaker: But the interesting thing is, and that's what most people would focus on, and that's what people, society forces us to focus on, is the micro versus the macro.
Speaker: Even if you look at, like, look at the stock market, right?
Speaker: So, for example, like, I've been investing in stock market for, like, a few years now, right?
Speaker: And then I realized, right, and what I hear, I follow a few people on, like, Reddit and stuff, like, they're actual decent investors.
Speaker: And, like, you know, I listen to actual...
Speaker: actual financial news by actual financial people, right?
Speaker: In the morning.
Speaker: So I'll just maybe listen to that like sometimes, right?
Speaker: Once a week or something like that.
Speaker: So CBA actually has a really good one, right?
Speaker: You listen to the actual financial news versus the financial news that you get from the news media.
Speaker: It's so different, right?
Speaker: Because they take a screen... Essentially what they're doing is they're taking a screenshot of the past 14 days and showing you all the downward trends.
Speaker: You zoom out onto the macro, you see that that same stock, despite the fact that it dropped...
Speaker: 10% was up by 60% in the past financial year.
Speaker: You go, okay, well, that 10% fall means you're still on a net positive of 50%.
Speaker: And no one's going to look at that because they're just going to look at the quick answer, which they find from the news media, so to speak.
Speaker: And that's what the vibe of the general society is these days.
Speaker: It's very much so focused on the, you know, what's the daily.
Speaker: Even like, even my, you know, I work in marketing and like in sales wise, right?
Speaker: For example, you know, like, like one of, this is, I won't talk about the company that I work for, right?
Speaker: But there's a company that I used to work for previously, right?
Speaker: So the net profit of the period that they engaged me in to work with them, right?
Speaker: their net profit up net profit increased uh sorry net revenue increased by 50 percent in in year to date right but in in the months there were a few months that that you know there was a there was a downward trend so they were like you know four out of let's say six months that i worked
Speaker: were actually, you know, let's say either equal or more than before, right?
Speaker: But there were two months that were actually the... It was lower than what they anticipated, right?
Speaker: But they were always like, oh, this month, this week is so shit.
Speaker: It doesn't... Yeah, it's always hard to explain to people that, like...
Speaker: If you look at the overarching changes.
Speaker: Yeah, you want to be focused on quarterly and yearly is hard because it can feel like a long period of time.
Speaker: But yeah, you don't want to be looking at the daily, the weekly numbers, if at all possible.
Speaker: Quarterly is going to give you, you know, every by yearly, so every six months and 12 months, that's going to give you a real indicator.
Speaker: It's like, okay, if after six months, you know, this trend is still going, okay, we definitely need to address this.
Speaker: But yeah,
Speaker: it averages out like you you know you're still doing really well and you're never going to be like the market's never going to be perfect people issues i feel like people tend to pay their bills around the same time or shit happens like the weather gets crappy then people spend more money this you know whatever it is that causes that sort of natural progression in life but over the over the three six twelve month period like
Speaker: come at me now, like, let's speak about that.
Speaker: Let's not speak about last week.
Speaker: Let's speak about this three month period.
Speaker: And then it's like, oh, it's doing pretty good.
Speaker: But yes, it's fascinating.
Speaker: Some people would just, what they're used to doing or who really knows why, what they're maybe, yeah, they're, um,
Speaker: Yeah, you're probably able to speak to that a bit more maybe why you think people are that way inclined.
Speaker: It's definitely got to do with like that instant gratification, that world we live in nowadays.
Speaker: It's all about sort of, you know, planning is in the back mind and people's, what's happening right now is what people's focused on.
Speaker: And that's definitely like a little bit of a lockdown mentality as well, because it's, you're sort of focused on it day to day.
Speaker: I feel like that's a little bit of a effect that it's having on society.
Speaker: It was definitely heading that way in, you know, pre 2020.
Speaker: But I feel like this has definitely accelerated that a little bit.
Speaker: Oh, there's, I mean, interesting enough, interesting fact for someone from working in e-commerce, right?
Speaker: And this is actually an article that I want to write in and actually say, you know, the inside scoop for someone who works in e-commerce for people who don't know.
Speaker: You know, the 10 secrets that e-commerce companies don't want to know.
Speaker: Even though I want to know, so I'm going to do kind of something like that.
Speaker: But interesting enough, like I found, so the two of the most popular days on e-commerce are Thursday and Monday.
Speaker: Interestingly enough, so obviously my job as a marketer is usually to justify why are those two days more popular, right?
Speaker: So I go, okay, why are they more popular?
Speaker: Thursday, I found that it just tends to be the most common payday in Australia is Thursday.
Speaker: Thursday or Wednesday is the more common day.
Speaker: And so even if someone got paid on Wednesday, you'll find that they may be spending on Thursday, right?
Speaker: Also just goes to show how many people leave pay to check to pay check that willing to spend the next day of the day off that they find.
Speaker: So the reason I can also tell you that is because you'll find that sales on a Thursday will actually happen later on in the evening a lot more.
Speaker: So people are actually getting paid and spending the money straight away.
Speaker: So it's quite interesting.
Speaker: The second one is Monday.
Speaker: I usually find is actually sales happen on a lot earlier in the day.
Speaker: Monday, I would say after the weekend.
Speaker: Monday.
Speaker: So it's really interesting, actually.
Speaker: So both of them kind of exposing.
Speaker: But, you know, one of the things that I want to write this article and then one of the things that I wanted to say was you'll find like one of the things that happens in e-commerce more often than it should is
Speaker: And more so ever than more now, more than ever before is people will order something and 15 minutes, 15 to 20 minutes later, or sometimes maybe an hour later, sometimes a day later, we'll write an email saying, when will my parcel arrive?
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And it's like, my man, like you ordered it 15 minutes ago.
Speaker: I don't get understand how it's even physically possible for us to get it from our warehouse to your door.
Speaker: Like, you know, it doesn't make sense.
Speaker: Are you just bored?
Speaker: Like, is this a joke?
Speaker: And that happens.
Speaker: Yeah, that's fascinating.
Speaker: That actually happens way more than it should.
Speaker: It is fascinating how people's brains work, right?
Speaker: And the other thing is you'll find, and this is more interesting, and I want to touch base on what you were saying briefly before, but I want to point this out as well.
Speaker: So you'll find, let's say someone's parcel is delayed, right?
Speaker: So most of the delays are caused by Australia Post because most e-commerce companies in Australia use Australia Post.
Speaker: And Australia Post in 2018 was told by Chambers of Commerce, I think that's what they call, that, hey, there's going to be a drastic increase in e-commerce in the coming years.
Speaker: This is pre-COVID.
Speaker: You should upgrade your system.
Speaker: And they said, no, we're great.
Speaker: We're fine.
Speaker: We'll cruise.
Speaker: And come 2020, obviously, it was worse than what it should have been because COVID came around.
Speaker: And Australia Post has still has no way of capacity of copying with their mechanism.
Speaker: They've been hiring people by the bucket load, but they still can't keep up with the demand.
Speaker: So it's always Australia Post that's delaying, but they're still keeping it's still taking shipments.
Speaker: They're still paying.
Speaker: They'll still take your money, but just won't give you the service.
Speaker: because and then on top of that they're so big so no one just cares but what would happen is like let's say if you order something and it's late right and uh what you'll do is you'll like for example not necessarily you but what people will do is leave a bad comment about the company i will try to explain to them saying hey like it's not us that's delaying your parcel it's australia post and they they don't want to hear that what's more interesting is those same people will go to amazon and buy something or ebay buy something and not even see the parcel for the rest of their life right
Speaker: And they won't do anything.
Speaker: You know what?
Speaker: It's really interesting that the people are willing to take that step to, you know, do this thing, actually have their opinion about this company, even though, you know, they know if it was some other company who did that to them, they wouldn't do it because they're much bigger.
Speaker: So I find that really interesting.
Speaker: So I was wondering if you have any thoughts on that or wonder why that happens.
Speaker: I mean, I still stumped to it.
Speaker: I don't understand why that happened.
Speaker: Why do people do that?
Speaker: So why would someone not complain to Kmart, but would Kmart complain to a smaller company?
Speaker: Because, you know, they were... Just a side point before.
Speaker: I think I have an idea with...
Speaker: like I know I'm seeing a lot more FedEx now and there's obviously heaps of third-party curia companies that do a lot of deliveries now but does Australia Post have like is it just market share they have or do they still have so many contractors so many different suppliers that they just like have such control over the industry?
Speaker: Australia Post still holds about 60% of the market and the reason they hold the market is because they're the cheapest and the reason they're the cheapest is because they've been around the longest and
Speaker: quantity and also the another thing with the reason they can stick on like how much they ship the second one they're cheaper is because they still hold so if you if i use for example fedex right fedex actually probably has less chance of getting you the parcel even though they'll charge me about 100 bucks because if you're not home fedex goes into like this sims mode of like what do i do now like what to do like error error they literally start having errors in their brain of like what yeah the australia post will just take to the local
Speaker: post office, right?
Speaker: So there's actually a huge aspect like I've seen, you know, interestingly enough, this FedEx order that I sent to New Zealand, right?
Speaker: And we paid $99 in Australian dollars to send a parcel to New Zealand.
Speaker: It was a box, but it was like overnight had to be, right?
Speaker: So this was clearly urgent that we paid $100, right?
Speaker: And it got to New Zealand and the person, the delivery driver, got to the place and he couldn't get into the reception or to this office, right?
Speaker: And he couldn't find the door.
Speaker: So he got really confused.
Speaker: So he just went back to the depot.
Speaker: And the depot got really confused what to do with the package.
Speaker: So they sent it back to the airport.
Speaker: So the airport got really confused.
Speaker: So they said...
Speaker: yeah you could just see back and forth i actually still have i'll send you a screenshot of the tracking it's incredible it's just like back and forth so you know so it was really interesting seeing how they handled that so australia post at least yeah there's no like a little bit better there
Speaker: correct procedure in place, people didn't know what to do.
Speaker: And I think the, and I've dealt with this with, you know, dealing with local companies and suppliers compared to the big ones is you feel more of a human connection, I think, when you're dealing with a smaller company.
Speaker: So if you reach out to customer service or you buy a product, you feel like you're actually really contributing to the community, where if you go to Kmart, you go to these big chains, it's like, you know, you're just another number.
Speaker: So you tend to
Speaker: Even if you feel like you're reaching out to them, you tend to feel like, well, they don't really care because there's so much volume.
Speaker: So I think people just go, well, if they don't care, I don't care.
Speaker: Whereas like a smaller business, even if it's a subconscious thing, they go, well, yeah, I'm helping them with my business.
Speaker: I want them to help me.
Speaker: So I think that's probably part of it as well.
Speaker: And I think if you're in an industry where people are buying more often for other people and not buying for themselves, if you're buying, I feel like if you're, I can definitely, it's not an exact thing, but if I'm buying something for someone else, like I really want to know what's going on, where it is.
Speaker: If I'm buying it for myself, I want to know as well, but I'm a bit more chill because I know it's on my time.
Speaker: If I want to give a present to someone else, like I'm checking that shit every day and I'll make sure you're home, you know, that sort of thing.
Speaker: So maybe that's it too.
Speaker: No, no, totally, totally, totally.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It's a mixture of aspects, but I always think that's really interesting.
Speaker: And then what were you saying before?
Speaker: The connection with the company, I think it's, you know, if you're dealing with those big companies, there's less of that, you know, you feel like you're just dealing with a machine and not dealing with people, even though people work for those companies, you know?
Speaker: It's really interesting.
Speaker: But the funny thing is long-term aspect, what happens is like this small company that actually still cares about the companies and there's actually a greater connection because, you know, each customer is valuable to the, you know, it's all about percentage, right?
Speaker: You know, one customer makes up, let's say, 1% of the customer, for example.
Speaker: True.
Speaker: For a company that may have 100 customers, that's 1% of the customer versus for Kmart, you make up,
Speaker: a fraction of a percent, you know, you know, if that on a good day, you know, so it doesn't even make a difference or it came out of the Amazons of the world, you know, so it's really interesting seeing how, you know, people's behaviors work.
Speaker: But anyway, nonetheless, I think quickly going back to what you were saying before about, about what was, I think the question about people buying?
Speaker: Do you mean buying from one company to another or do you mean like the reason, like the days, for example, Thursday and Monday?
Speaker: No, no, no.
Speaker: I think there was a question you asked before that.
Speaker: I thought it was just about the market.
Speaker: Like, why did it stray post?
Speaker: No, I'm not sure.
Speaker: Oh, yeah.
Speaker: Oh, no, no.
Speaker: I think it was about the market.
Speaker: Like, when people buy or not.
Speaker: I think there's a few aspects.
Speaker: Like, I think there's a lot more external things that affect people buying a lot more than anything else.
Speaker: You'd find, like...
Speaker: Rainy day, people would tend to spend less, which is weird because you think people are home, but people tend to spend less.
Speaker: It's so weird, but it just happens to be the case.
Speaker: I don't know what people think.
Speaker: Online particularly is less food traffic as well.
Speaker: Rainy days is just bad for business.
Speaker: Rainy days is a fascinating one.
Speaker: I understand when people have their days off because you're less stressed because you're at home or you're in a comfortable environment.
Speaker: If you're at work, you're generally a bit more stressed and then you want to maybe buy something to make yourself feel better, a little bit of gratification.
Speaker: So then you're more likely to like, I was like that.
Speaker: I was more likely to even know I was at work.
Speaker: I was more likely to listen to a podcast or something when I was at work because I just needed distraction.
Speaker: And at home, I'm just like, ah, whatever, you know, I'll get to it.
Speaker: So, yeah, kind of unique.
Speaker: Hey, Nick?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: All right.
Speaker: So good, bro.
Speaker: Well, I reckon we put the nail on the head here.
Speaker: As always, mate, we could touch that hour mark and we could keep on going.
Speaker: But this is a good little one to come back to.
Speaker: I feel like we sort of...
Speaker: you know, sort of came back into the flow nicely and we'll definitely pick it back up.
Speaker: I feel like we'll be a lot more active now and a lot more, you know, a lot more, you know, servicing to our regular faithful listeners than many are great men and women at home.
Speaker: So we much appreciate you guys tuning in.
Speaker: If you've made it this far, we love you very much.
Speaker: I love you too, Nick.
Speaker: So good.
Speaker: Love you too, man.
Speaker: Thanks for joining me on the podcast.
Speaker: It's good to have the ball rolling.
Speaker: Like we said, all good things come back.
Speaker: Did you have anything I'm straddling in that head, mate?
Speaker: Always.
Speaker: Oh, we've got everything, but you've got nothing to come out.
Speaker: I've got nothing.
Speaker: Sounds all good.
Speaker: All right.
Speaker: So good.
Speaker: Episode number, who knows, 33 of the Mighty Clever Dummies podcast.
Speaker: Tell your mum, your lover, just give her a big old hug for me.
Speaker: All right.
Speaker: Nice, nice big squeezer.
Speaker: Stay safe.
Speaker: Stay friendly.
Speaker: We'll catch you next time.
Speaker: Bye.
