Our New Boy Band

Josh: The Daily Talk Show episode 302.

Tommy: What's going on?

Josh: Can you not touch my button again, please?

Tommy: Don't fucking touch me.

Josh: You, you, uh, you actually press the button that makes the music, the intro go.

Tommy: Yeah, I started this show.

Josh: Did you realise that maybe I was about to forget?

Tommy: Yeah, I reckon you did. Yeah, um, something you did forget, uh, was that a piece of mail was addressed to me yesterday that came and had my name on it and you opened it. Fucking, I was actually pissed off this morning when I got it.

Josh: Were you like genuinely?

Tommy: Oh, because I was, I was, it's what came was Craig Harper, our buddy. He's written a new book, it's called 20 Questions for Humans. Uh, it's very practical, get your shit together. It's nice. Yeah, good to see. He's been telling, he was telling us about this for ages and, um, I bought 2 copies, got them shipped here.

Josh: Yeah, big man on the business.

Tommy: Yeah, yeah, we're supporting our mate and, um, I was just looking forward to it because I see you getting so much mail. You're like the kid at a party that opens the fucking birthday boy's presents.

Josh: Well, no, what happened was we had been leaving for— we did a presentation thing at a TAFE yesterday. Yeah, it's like an independent college type of thing. Anyway, as we were heading there, you looked at the letterbox and said, ah, there's Craig's books. Yeah, I'll hide that under some other stuff so no one steals it.

Tommy: Yeah, I said, oh, we got a package. And then I was like, oh, it's going to be Craig's books. And so still had my name on it, bro.

Josh: Yeah. And so, but when you went home, uh, Mr. 97 and I came back to work, yeah, finishing off the day. And, uh, the, the package was there and I was like, okay, I'll take it up. And then as I took it up, I was like, oh, I've got a bookshelf at home that's not full. It'd be great if I can slide in a bit of Craig Harper into my life.

Tommy: Yeah, there's a lot of people saying that, yeah, I'd love to slide Craig Harper in. Yeah.

Josh: And so that was the plan. And so, but I'm—

Tommy: You had a night with Craig.

Josh: I did. I'm sorry though, because where I went wrong with it was I didn't look that it was addressed to you. I was so just in the moment and just saw the red and white AusPost and just grabbed it.

Tommy: I mean, in fairness, you are getting that many packages of books that it could have been, and 99% of them are for you. We're rarely getting anything from me. I rarely buy anything. I don't buy shit.

Josh: Do you enjoy the thing of opening a package?

Tommy: Yeah, I think we all do, don't we? Like opening— like, um, my brother's daughter was opening Bodhi's presents. He's 2, she's 3.

Josh: Did Bodhi get upset about it?

Tommy: He actually thought they were hers. He's like, "Mummy's presents." So he was— and you're like, "No, they're yours." No, yeah, I was the, you know, the caring father.

Josh: You're the baby.

Tommy: No, no, yeah, I know.

Josh: Put it down!

Tommy: I didn't— she had to open it. He's 2, he can't really do too much.

Josh: Well, we're sending out gifts to people.

Tommy: We are, we're sending stickers. We're open, we've opened it up again. This is our fourth run of—

Josh: it's a sticker run—

Tommy: stickers.

Josh: And sound effect.

Tommy: Yeah, we've sent them all over the joint. We've sent these— I mean, we finally got the ones to the UK when you did.

Josh: Oh, that's right. Um, I sent them from Barcelona. Yeah, to Michelle in the UK.

Tommy: You actually did that? You did it.

Josh: It's good.

Tommy: You— they made it.

Josh: Well, I didn't do it, but, uh, my, my friend Ibrahim did it.

Tommy: Oh, did he? Yeah, you outsourced it.

Josh: Yeah, no, because what happened was I think he, he sent I put in the return address as our PO box, which is PO Box 400, Abbotsford, Victoria 3067. And the thing was that obviously in Spain, you can't have a return address that's like overseas.

Tommy: Okay.

Josh: And so, they got declined at the post office.

Tommy: Really?

Josh: So, he had to redo them with, I think, his address.

Tommy: Oh, interesting. So, we've sent stickers to Madawi, which I didn't know of. In New South Wales, Victoria, New South Wales again, heaps all over the joint. One to Portugal.

Josh: Yeah, that's great.

Tommy: Up into Queensland, the USA, so, um, Schaumburg, Illinois. Fuck, geez, we've sent them all over the joint. So we've opened it up again and we've already had people asking because it cuts off on Friday. We had an email from Emily who is an Aussie Yeah, she's learned quite a bit from our show. She discovered it through Christian Hull and she continued to listen, and she said that she's started to— she's been hearing us use a heap of slang, and she says, I was, I was brought up here and I don't even use Aussie slang. Gronk, she'd never heard the term before, so I'm pretty proud of that.

Josh: Well, we actually had some— an early listener, probably the first 50 episodes, reached out and they— English is their second language, and they were basically using our podcast to sort of brush up on their English.

Tommy: I'd love that, just at uni. Hello, Gronk!

Josh: Yeah, Gronks, Bogans, all the bits.

Tommy: What's up, bro?

Josh: But we also got emails from John who says, so keen to get the Daily Talk Show stickers. Oh yeah. Or a few if you're offering more. How many do we include in each?

Tommy: Usually it's 4 to 6 stickers. Yeah, it depends on how loose— I mean, I've been doing all the ones on the ground since we've been back. Yeah, it depends on how loose I get.

Josh: And so, uh, yes, John, you will be getting, uh, more than just one. He said, I heard you guys on Craig Harper's podcast, started listening then at about episode 200 when you did the last sticker offer. And we also heard from Sean as well, and Sean has done something that we've had happen a couple of times he is offering a sticker swap.

Tommy: Yeah, I'll take it.

Josh: And so the idea being that we've had Wayne has done this for us in the past, we've had Michelle do it. Basically people sending us stickers. We had Trello, we've got a bunch of Trello stickers as well.

Tommy: I mean, people do store stuff like this. There's so much going on behind closed doors. What does that mean? Like I was thinking, I was driving past a commission housing estate, so it's like a sky-rise, hundreds and hundreds of apartments. I was like, you know, it was just a thought to think there is so many different people that have a different existence. Their houses could be really well kept, like in these commission homes that are just like spotless. Yeah, they've renovated, or complete dumps.

Josh: Yeah.

Tommy: And we all sort of like, the— our homes are very much a look into our souls about how we're, you know, how we're going with shit, I think. Like, I know my house is a mess if I'm fucking all over the shop or Bodie's just shat everywhere and he's just being annoying. Any one of those two.

Josh: What I think we do is I've kept all the stickers to a box.

Tommy: Yeah.

Josh: So it's not going to get to a point where the whole— every bit of the wall is filled with stickers. Yeah. Have you ever been a magnet guy?

Tommy: Nah, because then I'd have to— I mean, yeah, I've never been a magnet guy. I was just thinking about the fridge. I've Somehow ended up with magnets but I'm always curious— Where the fuck did that come from?

Josh: Mr97, having a family home do you have magnets on your fridge?

Mason: No, the front of our fridge isn't magnetic only the side bit is.

Tommy: He's from an affluent area where they have built the actual look of the whole kitchen into onto the fridge wall.

Josh: Is my parents' house like that or something?

Mason: Our kitchen's all old so it's just slot-in fridge.

Tommy: But new houses and shit like a lot of them yeah have it looks like a door, so it makes it look like it blends into the cupboard.

Mason: Yeah.

Tommy: So you're moving away from the front of the fridge.

Josh: Yeah.

Tommy: I mean, magnets are a bit of a dying thing, but I mean, we'll probably end up creating—

Josh: but I think there's heaps of industry, like, um, travel. There's people who, if they go overseas, yeah, they get a magnet.

Tommy: Tourist, like, it's a tourist trap.

Josh: But I don't know if it's a tourist trap. Like, some people, that's like the thing they collect.

Tommy: You mean you're buying it from the bottom of the Trevi Fountain in, uh, Rome? Yeah, and it's like, oh, this is a great idea for a little bit.

Josh: People get right into it. Tea towels.

Tommy: There is one, I, and I had it on my old car, Honda Civic, still there the day I sent it off to the scrapper, got my $250 for it.

Josh: What was it?

Tommy: Um, it was a magnet from a fish and chip shop in Shepparton, and he's like, oh, take one of these. He's like, ah, probably won't use it. He said, no, put the magnet on the inside of your door in your car. Just slap it on.

Josh: Why?

Tommy: Because he's like, heaps of people do it and it just lives there. So if you ever need it, you're getting into your car— I mean, it's a marketing thing from him, but this thing never fell off. So the inside seal of your—

Josh: if you ever need it, for what?

Tommy: The inside— we need fish and chips. You need the number to get— call fish and chips.

Josh: So it was specifically designed as a way of—

Tommy: it was just a magnet for a fridge, and he— and your car's metal, so you can stick it onto your car. And so when you open your door within your car, there's like the door frame, the door seal.

Josh: Would that work on like an i30 or something?

Tommy: Work on any of the cars because they're all metal.

Josh: So we could potentially do like a daily talk show magnet that sat specifically designed for the door?

Tommy: I can show you where it goes because it's like, it doesn't come off with the door. It's not that tight. There's a slight little gap. It would make sense for a daily talk show magnet based on you're getting in DK, you probably can listen to the show. I don't know how many times I then went and bought fish and chips based on this magnet. I was always just so impressed that it was still there.

Josh: Are there any phone numbers that you remember off by heart?

Tommy: Yep, 95965454, 95313814040. Yeah, heaps.

Josh: Wait, what are those numbers?

Tommy: 95965454 was my, um, where I grew up.

Josh: Yeah, my house number. Is it still the house number?

Tommy: I don't know. Should I just probably just I won't put it to air, but I'll just—

Josh: yeah, just have the— just— I'll just put the call— don't even do it loudspeaker. No, because we can't know.

Tommy: Well, we don't know if it rings. Let's just see if the number you have called is not connected.

Josh: Okay, sure.

Tommy: Yeah, so they've— the funny storey about home numbers, like, I don't know how much you're needing to remember these numbers anymore based on having iPhones, like, or phones. You just aren't needing this shit. There was— I was in Sydney and I called my home phone because I wanted to speak to Mum. And so I just typed in, pressed, uh, yeah, the number, called, and I, and then answered. I said, hey. They said, hey. I said, what are you, what are you doing? Because I just felt like it was this weird interaction. Like, oh, what do you, what do you mean? I just looked at my phone to look at the number. I'd put in 95965454.

Josh: You forgot the state.

Tommy: I was in the area, the area code of Sydney. So there's a family in Sydney that has this number that I was like, I ended up, it was a young chick and we just had this sort of funny interaction. I told her what had happened and she laughed at me. I was like, oh yeah, well, so it was a—

Josh: anyway, I remember I tried to call, I think it was RACV once. Oh yeah. And ended up calling like another, like a radio station.

Tommy: Roadside assistance.

Josh: Yeah.

Tommy: Yeah, because then would you break down?

Josh: Yeah, run out of petrol, which is normally— but there was Lube Mobile. Yep, Lube Mobile will come to you. The numbers 13, 30, 32.

Tommy: What was it? There was a kid who used to say 13, 13, 30, 32.

Josh: Yeah, is that what it was? Yeah, I think the number— Mr. 97, can you Google the number 03?

Tommy: Here we go.

Josh: Uh, ready? I want to see how impressive you guys think this is. Yeah, 9796. 9796. Yep. 6199.

Tommy: 6199.

Josh: Yep.

Tommy: Enter.

Josh: Enter.

Tommy: So you're just Googling the number?

Mason: Yeah, Mexican Cantina.

Josh: Mexican Cantina, Naree Warren. Geez, are you impressed? My favourite restaurant growing up. Growing up is it 9796?

Tommy: Was it to order takeaway or was this just to place an order?

Josh: No, this was to book. It's a Mexican Cantina. 'Hey, Arrett, it's Josh here.' 'Oh, hey mate, how you going?' 'Yeah, good, thank you. Can I just book 4 for Janssen?' 'Yeah, absolutely.

Tommy: What time?' '7:30.' In New York, I tell you, there's some great customer service these days, or at least makes me feel like, you know, they know me.

Josh: Are you impressed?

Tommy: That's kind of impressive. I call that when I go to the airport, I park in this joint called Jetport.

Josh: That's such an old-school thing to do, isn't it?

Tommy: Like, what, park at the airport? I can drive my car to an airport.

Josh: No, well, parking in the— I just have these nostalgic memories of being parked in— what's the court called? Uh, there's a specific court where there's a few of them.

Tommy: Yeah, there's a bunch of them, but it is actually more effective, more convenient than the long-term car park at the airport. It's so— it's like $17 a night.

Josh: Did you ever do a limo to the airport?

Tommy: Nah, never. So anyway, when you call this company, they just say, uh, airport parking, blah blah, yep, no worries Tommy, they've got your number saved in their system. But I just felt like, I kind of like, it's one of those moments, it jolts you, oh, they knew my name.

Josh: So you like it?

Tommy: I know how it happens, but I was always like, thanks. There is those little elements, and it's a sales technique, right? Sort of the rapport.

Josh: You do, you do start to wonder, like there's a cafe that Bri and I go to on the weekends and they like some of our stuff on Instagram. Oh yeah, Instagram's like changed the way that we interact with businesses because now it's like, oh, do we like— I think they said Bree the other day, did they?

Tommy: And we actually never told them, you know. Okay, so they've— it's a fair play, know your clientele, know your customer, and call them by their name, but we like their Facebook photos.

Josh: Well, the waiter Yeah, actually, like, we've been there maybe 4— like, there's 4 times in a row every weekend when we had the same waiter. He's like, what's your names? He's like, I'll remember them.

Tommy: Yeah.

Josh: And so he did a great job. He was like, I'm gonna assign something to him. It was like brie cheese. And he came up with one for Josh.

Tommy: Classic, mate.

Josh: And then what was the one for Josh? I don't know, jackass Josh. But the one that— the way that I remember remembered his name. His name was Phil.

Tommy: Phil.

Josh: And Bree's got an uncle named Uncle Phil.

Tommy: Uncle Phil.

Josh: And so I just remembered Uncle Phil. I'm just gonna remember this guy's Uncle Phil. And we walked into the cafe and I bet him to him like, Uncle Phil! He's like, Bree! Josh! It was great.

Tommy: It is. I mean, there's times when you use, uh, characters that you probably can't tell the person that you're using that as the memory one. I've got one for a person I won't say their name, but I'll say the character. The guy from Family Guy, Peter Griffin. Yeah, the big sort of, you know, when he wears Hawaiian t-shirts, he's like a big fat guy. It was like—

Josh: his name's Peter?

Tommy: No, it's very close to that. And so I was like, that's the only way I could remember his name to start with. But every time it's just like, I cannot stop laughing. When I go there. But you don't want to be outed in that. You don't want to, like, you don't want to connect a name to something bad and then sort of, that's why.

Josh: Well, I've told you how I remember Carnie's name, our mail guy.

Tommy: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Josh: Carnival, Carnie. Yeah, I just like, and it's starting to really stick. He just knows us as the camera guys.

Tommy: Yeah, which he probably doesn't know our names.

Josh: That's a good point.

Tommy: He just knows this is the camera guy.

Josh: Call him up.

Tommy: Yeah, it is a weird, like, not— I always want to, like, yesterday we were doing a talk. It was nice. We got invited from Candy, my old co-host, Candy Hurts. Yep, on Shepparton, the Goulburn Valleys, Star FM.

Josh: How long did you guys— were you colleagues for?

Tommy: We were. We started the show together and we did a year, and then I had Stacy June, who's been on the show, um, for another year. So I was there for 2 years, but Candy and I were the OGs together there, and she invited us to come and do a talk, uh, to a bunch of her students from CollArts, which is like a college of the arts.

Josh: Yeah, they're, uh, vying to become providing their, uh, they're gonna be the next content creators.

Tommy: They're doing like a content creator workshop. Can't remember where I was going with that. Well, we did that yesterday, but no, so yeah, we got introduced to a few people. It's like I just fucking went blank straight away. I'm just like, oh, hey bro, hey mate. It's amazing how quickly you forget this shit. Yeah, and I, I know it's an active thing. Jules Lund is one of the, one of his greatest talents is remembering people's names. It's unbelievable. Like, early days, I'd take, you know, mates out, would go hang out with Jules and my brother and stuff, be like, "Buzzy, what's going on, bro?" Like, how the fuck did you remember that?

Josh: I can do that, but it just takes me a second. So I think the awkward pause, yeah, maybe sort of outweighs knowing the name. Yeah, like, it's like my brain is really ticking.

Tommy: So there's the guy who does it naturally which is Jules. But I think he's purposely doing it.

Josh: Yeah, it's something he still has to learn.

Tommy: Yeah, it has to be an intention going into a situation, like, I'm going to remember this person's name, because otherwise you're just caught up in your head, you're thinking about your own shit, what you're going to say.

Josh: But is there an argument too that you might spend so much time trying to remember these people's names that you actually don't listen to what they're saying?

Tommy: Um, I think there's probably a learning, uh, a period of time where you get good at it. So you get good at being the guy that quickly just says, that person related to that, great, fuck with David.

Josh: What did you learn from going to Coll Arts? How did it make you feel? You're the anti-establishment guy, you are the school dropout.

Tommy: Yeah, 100%. But I think since I've left school and you, and there's been a whole bunch of private colleges that have opened up that are offering courses more relevant to today's You know, modern times, like it's not uni, it's not just going to get your marketing degree from, you know, Swinburne or one of the big unis in Melbourne, you know, and then dropping out like Mr. 97 did from— from— was it Swinburne?

Mason: Yes, Swinburne.

Tommy: Yeah, marketing degree dropout over here.

Josh: Did you actually make any friends at Swinburne?

Mason: No, not really.

Josh: So do you— because you were telling us you, uh, you did how long in uni? 6 months. How many classes were planned and how many did you go to? Like, how, um, what were your contact hours?

Mason: One day a week.

Josh: One day a week. Jesus, it's all you had for one day a week.

Tommy: You could still do this while working full-time with us. But I am the anti-establishment person, but I kind of love the vibe at these joints. Like, me doing my personal training degree as a 17-year-old kid— I say degree Cert 4, bro. It was like fucking the failless course. You can't fail. But it was still frightening as fuck for me. And I remember being around, I just quit. Like, I'm not good, I will fail everything. Like, I just— that was the mindset, right? And it was nice to see people at a place that it's kind of cool. The venues are cool, they're in the cooler suburbs in Melbourne.

Josh: That's what I was thinking, that the location is sick.

Tommy: Yeah, and they're learning the shit that they want. And so there's now more offerings for doing stuff that you just want to do, you know. It's not wrapped up in some other course and you've got to do some arts thing before it or something. So I liked it, it was cool seeing some, you know, people that sort of early stage of wanting to give something a crack but not knowing what it is that they want to give a crack.

Josh: If I said to you, hey, I've got a bunch of cash something like that you can't turn down.

Tommy: How much?

Josh: Say a million dollars.

Tommy: A million, yeah.

Josh: Okay, a million bucks. The thing is that I'm a representative from Open Universities.

Tommy: Yeah, okay.

Josh: And we're trying to promote the age— what is it called? Like your old student? Middle? No.

Tommy: Yeah, a mature age student.

Josh: Thank you. Yeah, uh, got a million bucks. We just need you to do a 2-year degree? Can you even do that, Mr. 97? Could you do a degree in 2 years?

Mason: I know it's normally 3 years, but you might, you might be able to fast-track it if you've got some.

Tommy: Yeah, well, I've got prior experience.

Josh: But what are they? What if, if they were like, you have to, you just have to pick a degree?

Tommy: Yes.

Josh: What would it be if you, you could then, you'd have that degree?

Tommy: Okay, I think a, um, a marketing degree would be something that interests me. But I'd probably be rolling my eyes at everything. But if it was a million bucks—

Josh: smug fuck about it.

Tommy: No, but I would, because I'm a marketer, you're a marketer. If you make any kind of content, you're understanding communications. And, you know, and so I think there would be stuff where this is— we would struggle. It would be a super hard, hard experience. Um, this man Craig Harper, who wrote this book, so many questions— if you're listening to the audience, 20 Questions for Humans He went back to university, so he's got an exercise science degree, so he's a scientist, an exercise scientist. He went back later in life after he had successful businesses, multiple training studios, other ventures that he was going, written books, blogs, and then he goes back sitting in a classroom as a 40-something-year-old man. I think it was 40-year-old man, which, yeah, he ended up lecturing at those classes for some of them, but It's, it's an experience that he took. I remember him telling me that he took, uh, he basically stopped what he was doing with all his businesses and just became a student full-time, riding into Melbourne University or wherever it was in the city every single day or a couple days a week.

Josh: There's an appeal to it, don't you think? It's slightly appealing.

Tommy: Yeah, I think, I think you, you need to be okay. Like, I don't want to be a struggling student. I'm, I'll be the millionaire student.

Josh: You don't get the money until 3 years after you finish.

Tommy: 3 years out? Why 3 years?

Josh: Well, because I can see you're trying to fucking— you're going to be the biggest baller in the whole place.

Tommy: I think my brother had some help with some of his later down the line assignments.

Josh: What does that mean?

Tommy: So like, because here's the thing, right? My brother went and did a graphic design, industrial design degree and then got a full-time job. He then hadn't finished his course but then was designing helmets that were in the Tour de France for bike company and shit. So he nailed it and cracked skulls. Yeah, you missed the safety component.

Josh: Yeah, but it looks—

Tommy: no, but I think he got a bit of help with these assignments, outsourcing some help, because it comes to a point where you're like, I've actually learned a bunch of this practical stuff. I've learned about a bunch of this textbook shit and I've applied it practically practically to some real-life examples. And now, why do I need to do this shit? Yeah, so it's like, and that's where I'm learning now to not push back as much when you go to a place like that.

Josh: Yeah, it's not, it's not for everyone.

Tommy: Advice for everyone is not don't fucking go to university, just put in the effort, you schmuck. Yeah, well, it may be for me, but most people aren't, you know, fucked up like me.

Josh: Well, I went to Boulder in Colorado just on a holiday. We went there and it's—

Tommy: stop thinking of that song. How does it go? I'm ever getting older when I'm back in Boulder.

Josh: Oh, didn't know that was what they said.

Tommy: But, um, it's actually one of your favourite songs, dude.

Mason: Yeah, you like— it's in your playlist.

Tommy: The Chainsmokers. Close enough.

Josh: Close enough. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's a good one.

Tommy: We could be one of those bands.

Josh: We could be called Deftones.

Tommy: There is something so funny about when you say to somebody, oh, you remember that song? And I'm humming it completely perfect, to tune. I can't understand how you don't hear what I'm saying. It's got no fucking— no understanding to it. So yeah, you're in Boulder, Colorado. Chainsmokers film clip.

Josh: There was a cafe and just like it was bustling with college students and I thought this would be cool, like in another life I could imagine going there and hanging out and having a coffee and being on my MacBook and yeah, right, doing an assignment.

Tommy: Yeah, I get that appeal, but then I think the form and the structure would break you, bro. Yeah, it'd break me. Well, I think— tell me what to do.

Josh: The international bit, '97, did you ever think about doing an international sort of transfer placement?

Mason: Nah, but I had credit too.

Tommy: What does that mean?

Josh: It's an annoying fuck. He had the opportunity and didn't do it.

Mason: Well, no, you had, you had to wait until like you're like—

Josh: you did more than 6 months?

Mason: You have to do like, yeah, your second year and then you can do an international placement.

Josh: That would have been so much fun.

Mason: The thing is though, yeah, but you're going until, until you get to see what the assignments are and that's probably—

Tommy: yeah, I mean any of these degrees or courses that you do. It's forced learning or forced action. So you're made to do an assignment, which is basically like— we've done assignments ourselves, putting together some sort of video series or just committing to the process.

Josh: That was the assignment. What about if like you got to your project was working on your YouTube channel? Yeah, that'd be cool.

Tommy: Do I still get my million bucks?

Josh: I don't know. Well, I think put the— take the million bucks off the table.

Tommy: But these are like, if I gave you It's—

Josh: I got very close to signing up to do a degree.

Tommy: Which one?

Josh: In end of 2014. It was just before I went— Yeah, it was just before I went overseas on the big trip with Naysan. Yeah, I was like, um, I was thinking I wanted to do more writing. Yeah, I wanted to do more— like, I had just gone down a rabbit hole of all the stuff Nick Bilton, who's a journalist who wrote Hatching Twitter, a book all about, oh yeah, uh, Twitter. And I was like, I'd love to be a journalist who just explores and there's adventure and doing all that sort of stuff. And so I was— I remember being in it, always these, uh, whatever crisis moments or whatever, like you could look at it two ways, breakdowns.

Tommy: One of them is like quarterly for Josh.

Josh: And so there was my quarterly breakdown, I was in Broome in WA. Yeah, yeah.

Tommy: And so were you at Christopher Scaife's Hotel, the one with the ginormous pool?

Josh: No, no, no.

Tommy: Christopher Skaife was an old con man, Australian con man, and he built this ginormous place. I think it was in Broome, and there was this huge fuck-off pool.

Josh: Alleged con man, or no?

Tommy: He was on the run. He died pretty much on the run, I think.

Josh: Really?

Tommy: He had like a gas, you know, thing for his nose.

Josh: Now what's that? What is that?

Tommy: Like a thing that you breathe through. Breathing apparatus. Because smoking went downhill for him.

Josh: Interesting. There's a lot of missing bits to that story. But the, um, no, I remember being at Broome and I, it was, um, it was when Miley Cyrus had just brought out a new album. So I was doing a lot of walking on the beach listening to like, um, I can't remember the words again. But anyway, I was playing that song and I was like, uh, walking heaps and I would come back and I was on like the Open University's website looking up journalism degrees.

Tommy: And why didn't you do it? What was the main reason you didn't pull it?

Josh: Because I realised that Nick Bilton, who I respected, hadn't done one. And like, I was like, I need to be a journalist to be— I wanted to do all these. I think I had just, um, I hadn't done that doco. I was wanting to do more documentaries. I was saying like Louis Theroux and Jon Safran and all, and I wanted to be able to write more and do all that sort of thing. And I liked the part of it was like a bit of a rebrand. I was like, you know what, I'm not going to tell anyone that I'm doing the course.

Mason: Yeah.

Josh: And then one day I'm just gonna be like, I've got a degree, I've got a fucking degree, I'm a journalist, and I've got a question.

Tommy: Yeah, it would never work. You'd, you'd blab about it.

Josh: Absolutely.

Tommy: There is— so here's some hypocrisy. The, uh, a friend of mine—

Josh: segment— here's some Hi, it's Tommy here. Here's some— I can't even say it.

Tommy: Here's some hypocrisy.

Josh: Can you do that? Can you do that as a serious bit? No, no, just for fun.

Tommy: No, I've already said it. So a friend of mine wanted to— he's a mature age student— wanted to do a psychology degree. A guy who has had some life experience, you know, found— decided that he wanted to apply himself to a 3-year course or something, and he was ready for it. Like, that is the perfect student, right? So you've got to sit— if you haven't done any study within a certain amount of years, you're going to sit this, like, what is it, like a stat test? A SAT test?

Josh: Oh yeah, SAT. Is it like—

Tommy: basically you're needing— it's like a general knowledge test and you have to get a score above a certain amount.

Josh: What do they call it in the US? The SAT?

Tommy: Stat test, maybe? Anyway, we're basically— the three of us are not going to fucking pass one of those. But actually, Mr. 97 would. I would crumble. He— the maths that he was doing— Danny dies SAT test. SAT, yeah, there you go.

Josh: Your SATs.

Tommy: Yeah, so the SAT.

Mason: Yeah, it's a—

Josh: what?

Mason: It's a STAT.

Tommy: S-T-A-T. Yeah, Special Tertiary— tertiary.

Mason: Yep, Tertiary Admissions Test.

Josh: He got 97.

Tommy: The guy over here didn't go.

Josh: Or tertiary is— is tertiary—

Mason: tertiary is tertiary education.

Josh: Yeah, is uni and stuff. Or no, it's tertiary just before uni.

Tommy: So anyway, it's all falling apart, my mate. Studied for this, sat it.

Josh: I think SAT is the American one, post-secondary education, and I think STAT might be what Australia does. Australia does, maybe. Hi@thedailytalkshow.com if you know the answer.

Tommy: He said it was full-on, dude, like you do it, um, and they check. So you do it over your computer, someone's watching you through the camera, you have to take your phone and show it, and you need to take 3 or 4 steps back, and you need to put the phone down so they see you putting the phone down. You need to pick up your computer and show around you what's on the floor, what's up. This is so in case people cheat.

Josh: This is a remote one, like this is so dumb.

Tommy: Isn't it stupid, right? And so you need to get like 55 or something and he got like 50. And he was on the phone to the person, the dean or the assistant to the person that accepts people into the university.

Josh: Surely it's in their best interest. Please.

Tommy: Please, you know, like, I'd love to come in and meet you, um, I'm really committed to this, you know, I'm, I'm an old-rate student, blah blah blah, all this stuff. Nah.

Josh: Where's the hypocrisy though?

Mason: There.

Tommy: The fact that they're knocking back.

Josh: That's not really hypocrisy.

Tommy: No, I'm glad I didn't commit to doing a fucking opener for the show. What, did I use the wrong word?

Josh: I just don't know if it's hypocrisy. The hypocrisy would be, the hypocrisy would be, we are for everyone, or that'd be contradictory.

Tommy: The word hypocrisy, uh, hypocrisy is the, um, a false appearance of virtue or goodness while concealing real character or inclinations, especially with respect to religious or moral beliefs. Way off. But where I, where I was going with it, psychology degree, helping people, the want to help someone, older person.

Josh: That's a little bit—

Tommy: yeah, I can see where you're almost getting there. Almost passing, knocking back. No, you can't do this based on you didn't know your maths or some English. It's like, this is where it's— but where—

Josh: so you just let any gronk in?

Tommy: No, but I think there should be some— I mean, this— yes, you could easily, easily say we have rules, it's fucking for a purpose, but it's also—

Mason: it's like the whole ATAR thing though.

Josh: Yeah, coming from Mr. 97.

Mason: Yeah, if you want to do psychology, then you gotta, you gotta get above like 80. Yes. Yeah.

Tommy: So which— do you think it's bullshit?

Mason: Yeah, it's not, it's not accurate. It's not, it's not a good, good, uh, thing to have to let people into what they want to do.

Josh: Why did you get it? How did you get a good ATAR? What was the combination of things?

Mason: Um, I did, I did well in English, which is like, it has to be in your top. It's got lots of— it's got a big effect on, on your score, and I did well in English.

Josh: Did you do English Literature or something?

Mason: No, just normal.

Tommy: Okay, was it your mission to get a high ATAR?

Mason: No.

Josh: Really?

Tommy: Well, annoying.

Mason: Well, it was, it was, I guess, like, I sort of, I didn't really care what I got, but, but did you, mate? I, I said, I set a, I set a goal as sort of like 90.

Josh: Yeah.

Mason: And then midway through the year, I was like, oh, hang on, this might actually get higher. But I wasn't, I wasn't expecting anywhere near.

Josh: What was the day that you got that? Because the day that you get your scores is a big thing. Do you get them by text message, via text?

Mason: No, you have to log— you have to log in. I didn't have my login, I had to go find— I had to email a teacher to go get it.

Josh: Forgot his password.

Tommy: He's using one of those annoying password—

Josh: yeah, hiding one password. So anyway, so you get— where were you when it all happened?

Mason: Uh, on holiday in New Zealand.

Josh: Okay.

Mason: In, um, Queenstown.

Josh: Was it— you feeling the pressure from mum and dad? No. What was that?

Tommy: And what was the feeling? Were you happy?

Mason: Was it, um, nah, it was— what? Look, no, I wasn't—

Tommy: I wasn't—

Josh: this is super ungrateful. Yeah, is this privilege?

Mason: No, look, no, I was, I was happy, um, but I guess it didn't— it, for me, it didn't really matter what I got. I wasn't like— it wouldn't— I don't think I would have felt any different if I got like a 70.

Josh: Really?

Mason: It doesn't— because it doesn't mean anything to me.

Josh: Did you go have a good dinner or something?

Mason: Like, yeah, yeah, mum and I Well, because Sam, James, and Dad, they were all on a hike, and then Mum and I were in Queenstown, so we went out for dinner.

Josh: Where'd you go? I can't remember. Yeah, you definitely can't remember.

Mason: No, no, no.

Tommy: Like, what food? Yeah, what was the food?

Josh: Yeah, what did you eat?

Tommy: Celebration.

Josh: I would have been like, I had nachos, then I had tacos, and I had a raspberry sorbet.

Tommy: Was it ribs, or did you go something?

Mason: Maybe a piece of steak.

Tommy: I can't remember.

Josh: I feel like he's making that up just to make me feel better. Okay, so it wasn't a big party because I guess that's the thing.

Mason: No, it wasn't, it wasn't a big celebration. It was just—

Josh: yeah, because in survey— so survey results in radio, that basically when they send out all the books and they get people to mark what they're listening to, and they're— all the radio stations find out on the same day how they went. And at my old work at Fox FM, they would have survey result lunches. Did you ever have this?

Tommy: Yeah, and they're pretty dark when it doesn't go well for the station.

Josh: Well, everyone would get Nando's. Would they? Yeah, so it was either Nando's, then they sort of moved to Grilled, but, uh, it was sort of like the celebration. A bit awkward though when results aren't good, but they're still, they're still doing the Nando's order.

Tommy: Interesting, when I worked on Matt Tilley's show You know, he had a number one breakfast show for 10 years in Melbourne, and then he sort of furthered down his career, moved into a breakfast show that was not doing well. And I just remember the— I mean, I was just the shit kicker, you know, creating the video content. And he was like, you could tell there was some like things he didn't want to know, stuff like it was like rituals where he didn't want to be told any of the results before the show. Or like, I mean, it makes sense. You're like, like you have all this pressure, all the pressure is riding on you as the face of the show. And so it was, it was a— there was some tense times for shows that weren't doing so well, you know.

Josh: But did it do well in the end or no? Uh, when you were working on it?

Tommy: No, maybe it— I mean, it was all just around, it wasn't like plummeting. I think it had plummeted and then it wasn't. Yeah, it'd be hard being in a sinking ship.

Josh: What was your final day of school?

Tommy: Um, I could— I can't remember that because I left in year 11.

Josh: Do you think— was it like a fizzle out?

Tommy: Because like, I stopped going most, most of the time.

Josh: But what— so the thing is like when, you know, Bree and I, or I'm sure when Mason finished school, you get your polo shirt and you all sign it. Did you do the whole signing polo shirt, like your shirts?

Mason: Yeah, school shirts.

Josh: Yeah, yeah, uniform.

Tommy: I did that in like primary school.

Josh: Yeah.

Tommy: And then that was it. So leaving primary school, I remember that was cool, but As I was older, I was leaving. I was just like, I'm done, catch ya.

Josh: But it's just a weird, like, so there's not like a specific memory of like, you know, waking up one day and being like, I've got no school now?

Tommy: I remember the conversation with my mum in the car saying I'm leaving, and like we were, we'd driven and we were together and just talking about it, what I was going to do.

Josh: You were 17?

Tommy: And then I remember, yeah, 17, and then I remember I went to the went into the place where I signed up for my personal training course, which was sick. Actually, no, that was later down the track.

Josh: Is it funny how memories work though? They all sort of fucking merge. '97, can't even remember what he ate. Yeah, outrageous. Absolutely.

Tommy: I mean, that was— you at least finished it, and it was a big thing for your life then, or it is, it is what you're working towards, which is why I'm surprised. Like, I, I just fizzled out of school.

Josh: It's a— it's a— yeah, it is a sort of a a weird thing. Did you find the pressure of, because you had a good score, not gloating about it? Did you have, mate, you know, dummy mates like us who didn't do as well? And how did you approach that?

Mason: No, I just sort of, I don't know, it was, it's hard because it's like when you've got that score, trying to be supportive of someone else, it's like, yeah, you don't really, you don't really mean that. Like, you've just, you've just got a 97. But I don't know, probably just not putting any weight on what the ATAR means, just like helping them in that regard.

Josh: Like, it doesn't mean anything, but that would annoy the fuck out of them because you've rocked up with a 97 and then, yeah, and then they might want to be a psychologist and need to get over 80 and they've got 65.

Tommy: Well, that's when it sucks, right? When you're trying to get into a course and it's all bank account.

Josh: This is—

Tommy: there's so much pressure for these kids. That's why it's full-on.

Mason: But the thing is, I mean like if that's the case and you don't get it, it's, it's like a one year— you can do like a one year thing and then transfer into what you want.

Tommy: This is why you shouldn't get fucking rewarded for placing. Yeah, you know, little running race when you're young, because first, second, third, like there is— like that is— you have to— you can't, can't be any less. You can't get it. Oh, here's a pat on the back for getting 69 when you had to get 70. Yeah, the, the—

Josh: yeah, there should be some, um like options for entrepreneurial people. What's the option if you don't get a good score?

Tommy: These colleges like Coll Arts or these other ones that—

Josh: the thing is like it's still school. I feel like there is that and then there's what is the other thing?

Tommy: Like I wonder, like the Jack Delosa, he's got an entrepreneur school.

Josh: Um, they all are still school. Like what if we chucked all that out? Like getting people into the workforce earlier I think is cool, but I think it It's so hard to do that in an effective way, mate.

Mason: No one pushes it like career advisors and stuff at school. Yeah, all of a sudden just everyone just— you just get pushed into university and TAFE, do you? And I mean, no one, no one's just like, oh, have a year off and go do some work experience. Yeah, like it's, it's a lot of them are just like, oh, gap year and then make sure you've got your uni university course in place.

Tommy: How's the hypocrisy?

Josh: I think that's the socioeconomics and stuff plays into it as well. My school was like a sports academy, so there's lots of sports, but, uh, low socioeconomic and not as much— it was probably— I wouldn't be surprised if it was, uh, 40— I would like to know the numbers, we should try and look it up, but I reckon 40% of people went on to do a trade, extended— no, extended, like uni or whatever. I reckon there was less less people went to uni than didn't, I reckon. So that, yeah, they would have gone to a trade, they would have started their own thing, they would have, you know.

Tommy: I mean, there's a bunch of people killing it doing trades now.

Josh: Yeah.

Tommy: So it's like, yeah, that is the getting out in the workforce. Kids— I went to school with a bunch of them that dropped out, started a trade. By the time they're 22, they're a fully qualified builder and they're sitting their building licence and they can go on to create a development company, a building company, whatever. It's like It's a good way to go.

Josh: Yeah, it's a one way to go.

Tommy: Yeah, one way to go.

Josh: That's the thing, even Conspiracy Jimmy. Yeah, it's like, you know, my son, I think, you know, the plumbing, the this, the that, like, we're always going to need pipes.

Tommy: Yeah, we're always bloody going to need pipes because Josh will always be shitting.

Josh: Jimmy always definitely needs pipes. And so that's the thing, is it's— that's part of it, which is I think that like everyone's on their individual journey It takes a lot of listening to be like, oh, what are you actually into? What do you want to do? And I guess we can't— I wonder how much of it's environmental versus— I mean, where were you pulling from, Mr. 97, when you were trying to work out what to do? Where was your inspiration coming from? We didn't have the podcast yet.

Tommy: Yeah, I had my YouTube channel, wasn't it? Yeah. Like, I think Josh is listening.

Mason: You're sort of just like pushed, like you grab it from what you've done at school. So all your subjects, that, that pushes you into something. But I think, I think for me it was just like looking at like Elon Musk and like Twitter, uh, Twitter, um, Tesla, SpaceX and stuff. I was like, oh, business would be cool. And so I thought I pulled it from there. And then yeah, watching I've sort of always enjoyed like watching films and stuff, so I think that probably drew a bit of inspiration for me to get involved.

Josh: It feels like there's an opportunity for industry and smaller business to engage, like have incentives to engage with students more too. Yeah, because slightly fucked up that that's the— like from a student perspective, it's like Tesla. Like that's where it's sort of like— it's, it's great, but there's also like wouldn't it be great if a small business, a medium-sized business, was engaged enough in the community that the dream was, I'm going to finish school and I want to work for this business?

Tommy: Yeah, yeah. Well, I think it is everyone thinking that they can do some huge— well, there's a dream.

Josh: It's Hollywood. I remember being in year 12 and looking up UCLA and looking up, you know, going to California. I had a an IT teacher who was friends with Jay Leno. He's American.

Tommy: I was like, he's actually friends with Jay?

Josh: Yeah, I thought it was the sickest thing ever.

Tommy: That's pretty sick.

Josh: And, um, he failed me. I didn't do my— I didn't do my Excel SAC. And he said, if you don't do your Excel SAC, you're gonna fail, right? That's the only thing you said to me, right? Yeah, if you don't do your Excel SAC, you'll fail. I said, okay. Anyway, I got my results back. He fucking failed me.

Tommy: Why? Did you do your Excel?

Josh: I didn't do the—

Tommy: of course you fucking failed.

Josh: The thing is that, like, it shows you— no, it. it's The thing is, it shows you within the school, it's like that. If I went to a private school, yeah, there would have been fucking meetings and pulling in parents and being like, Josh is going to fail IT.

Tommy: Nah, that's not true.

Josh: Don't you think, Mr. 97?

Tommy: I went to private school, $15,000 a year. I went to public school and I had some of the most supportive teachers in public school.

Josh: No, but my point is that like, I think the private school—

Mason: I don't know, but I feel like private schools might have more of a reputation to uphold, and so they try get— they try really to like elevate all of— I mean, it's in the best interest of everyone to elevate students, but I think, yeah, they would have gotten—

Josh: I would have been kicked out of the school, I reckon, if I was doing what I was doing. Where it's like, it was just an okay, like it was a one flippant conversation of, oh, you never did that, Zach, if you don't do it, you'll fail. Versus definitely, I reckon, most schools and even teachers, even classes within that system in the school that I went to would have had multiple sort of things before they said okay. I actually thought in my head, I'm like, he's saying that, but he was so loose about it. I'm sure like he's fucking— I mean, I passed music industry. I didn't do any of my coursework, didn't do any of the textbook work. But my teacher said, look, if you film my— he was in a Queen cover band. Yeah. And he said, if you come to— it was Musicland. In like the western suburbs. He picked Bree and I up and we went to Musicland.

Tommy: What were your teachers doing?

Josh: And I filmed, I filmed, I filmed his gig and he passed me.

Tommy: That's, that's, that's crazy. Yeah, that's solid.

Josh: Good.

Tommy: So I think from, from this talk that we did yesterday, it's interesting to see how we're in a bubble. The people we consume, Seth Godin, the people we've had on the podcast. I mean, there's an FI. Yeah, so I The learning is like whatever you think is going on around you, there's some alternative reality happening outside of that.

Josh: Yeah, mini worlds.

Tommy: There's totally mini worlds. And maybe it's like we see what we're doing, the people we're sort of viewing, they are making up the sort of bubble of the world that we're in and they're sort of leading in some ways. But there's, yeah, I guess it's like the radio bubble when we spoke to Bianca Chatfield, who was a, you know, professional netballer, Australian champion. She was like, the netball bubble. Yeah, it's like they're all here. And so if we can gain some perspective on the bubble that we're in and look, look outside, maybe it's where we find some inspiration or just different ways of doing shit.

Josh: It's the proximity effect. It's that, like, who are you hanging around with? What are you consuming? I think that all that shit's really important.

Tommy: Uh, that's it. We're fucking done. 46 minutes.

Josh: It's, uh, The Daily Talk Show. hi@thedailytalkshow.com if you want to send us an email. Stickers close, yes, on Friday. Our mate Craig Harper's got his book 20 Questions for Humans, craigharper.net. Yeah, that's his, that's his website.

Tommy: You can buy it from there.

Josh: That's where I go cheque that out.

Tommy: Thanks, Craig.

Josh: And, uh, yeah, send us an email, hi@thedailytalkshow.com, in the subject line stickers and with your address in the body of the email.

Tommy: Yeah, where you found us, um, will you date Mr. 97? And What's your favourite dessert?

Mason: Uh, what did you—

Josh: what did you eat the day you found out your ATAR score?

Mason: Yep, perfect.

Josh: Hi@thedailytalkshow.com. We'll see you tomorrow, guys.

Tommy: Hey guys.